Redemption
by poxelda
Summary: After Mac is almost killed walking confused across a freeway, the team has to find out what happened before the assassins trying to kill him finish the job. Mystery/hurt/comfort. Warnings for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

Traffic was heavy and moving fast. Four lanes split by a Jersey barrier unslowed by the thick drizzle or black night. Suddenly a man appeared out of the dark staggering into the deadly rush, confused and bloody. Surprised drivers stomped on their brakes and swerved, but there was no way to stop the inevitable. A bottle-blond, Tiffany Meyers, babbled to her bestie Stacy Kennedy about what a dish Tommy Hawkins was and how she was going to steal him from that incredibly stupid…

Tiffany screamed, dropped her phone and mashed down the brake pedal. She had a glimpse of a skinny blonde, time for a fleeting thought that Daddy would be pissed, then the man's body slammed into her hood, shattered the windshield then thumped over the roof.

Detective Lee Warren pulled his jacket closed and growled. He'd been having a fun game of poker with robbery when he got the call to go to Good Samaritan Hospital. Some drunk guy got grilled strolling across the 101. As a member of the HSS, the Homicide Special Squad, he had no idea why he was being called on a traffic incident to start with, then Lee found out he was flagged for this case specifically. Lee was curious and more than a little irritated as he walked into ER and crossed to the nurse's station.

"I'm here for the dead guy." He grumbled. He was too cold and wet to be sociable. Larissa, the head nurse for that shift, looked at the grizzled detective puzzled.

"Dead guy? We haven't had a death yet this shift." Lee rubbed his head thinking of the giant pot he'd missed out on winning. Dispatch must have screwed up again.

"Fine, a guy who got plowed into on the 101." The nurse looked at him oddly. Warren's detective radar was quivering. This whole situation stank worse than the commode he passed. The nurse nodded at a group of CHPs gathered around the coffee pot. Lee crossed to them and introduced himself. The highway patrol officers gave him cool looks. Warren was beginning to feel like Crazy Uncle Willie at his niece's wedding.

"I'm Sargeant Tate," A tall officer said. He looked like a cover model for GQ in a freshly ironed and sharply creased uniform. The CHP held out a hand. Lee took it and nodded. The taller man took a sip of his coffee and grimaced then held out a wallet, "The subject is in surgery currently. This is his identification." Lee pulled out the driver's license and his eyes widened.

"Oh shit." He nodded at the Sargeant and walked away pulling out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts and found the number he'd never had to call before. He rubbed his forehead feeling a headache coming on.

Jack paced in baggage claim his eyes dissecting the crowd as he had been for the last twenty minutes. He checked his watch for the millionth time. Jack checked the monitor to make sure his info was correct. Worry began to churn hot in his stomach; he was in the right place. Where was Mac? Jack's eye caught on a worn duffle he'd know from anywhere sliding along the black conveyer belt. He pushed forward through the crowd and followed its winding path waiting to see his best friend pick up his luggage. Jack's mouth went dry, and his Adam's apple bobbed as the bag disappeared back behind the wall. Something was seriously wrong.

He waited until the bag came around again then snagged it. He pushed back through the crowd to the closest men's room. He remained until he was alone then put the duffle on the diaper changing table and studied it. Jack froze. Dark brown stains that could only be dried blood formed handprints on both handles and the top of the bag. Jack carefully opened the bag and frowned a long minute. What he saw in the bag did not compute. There was a porcelain doll in a frilly pink dress. The face had been neatly cut out, and blood covered the hole, blond hair, and clothing. Inside the hollow doll crushed into the bottom was a wad of crumpled paper. Jack pulled it out. His eyebrows raised to his hairline. They were admission papers to Carlsbad Community Mental Hospital. Jack recognized Mac's signature. It looked normal. Had Mac signed himself in voluntarily? Why?

Jack heard voices at the entryway and shoved everything back into the bag and left. He pulled out his phone as he slowly walked toward the main entrance. To his surprise, it rang before he could hit speed dial. Jack frowned. It wasn't a number he recognized, but very few people had his name. Jack swallowed. His worry turned into a sinking black feeling of foreboding.

"Yeah?"

"Hey Jack, this is Lee Warren." It took a second for Jack to place the name. His gut clenched as he remembered the detective, the homicide detective.

"Hey Lee, please tell me this isn't about Mac." There was a long pause then the gruff detective said in an apologetic tone.

"I wish I could. I'm over at Good Sam he's here. He got hit wondering on the 101." Jack froze. His heart stopped he felt dizzy. Lee sputtered, "He's alive! Sorry, buddy. I got called in because he'd put a flag for his case to come to me if something happened."

"MAC put a flag for you?" Jack's voice squeaked as his heart slowly started beating again. He shoved a billion questions away and focused on the important, "How is he?"

"It's not good. Mac's got broken bones, and I guess fluid around his heart. The docs don't sound overly enthusiastic, but when do they ever?" Jack moved to lean against a wall to keep from collapsing to the floor. Lee sighed, "That's not all. He had a patient's bracelet on for a psych hospital…"

"In Carlsbad. Yeah, I got some crazy shit going on here too. Let me call the others, and we'll meet you there."

"Right."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack hardly noticed the trip to Good Sam. He had to remind himself to breathe. He knew he should have gone with Mac. Mac had made plans to spend a couple of weeks in Massachusetts. Frankie was marrying a police officer she'd met while researching ways to perfect her DNA process. Mac had texted regularly. There had been nothing suspicious. Jack had thought his partner was finally taking some well earned time off and was having fun. Jack frowned. Matty said she'd get in touch with Frankie. Riley was hunting down info on this Carlsbad asylum, and Bozer was driving like a bat out of hell from Mission City.

Jack yawned and growled. Early morning traffic was starting to stack up; Jack sped down the breakdown lane glad he was in the more mobile GTO. Jack circled down the next exit and drove like a maniac through surface roads to Good Sam. He parked and was moving as fast as he could to ER. Lee Warren met him. The detective looked precisely the same as he did the last time Jack had seen him more than a year ago. Jack wasn't sure, but he thought the man was even wearing the same wrinkled suit.

They filled each other in as they rode to ICU.

"He came through surgery better than they expected, but I didn't expect anything else from the kid," Lee said. Jack let out a breath. He narrowed his eyes.

"And?"

"Jack. they found electrical burns...the kind you'd get doing ECT." Jack frowned. Warren clarified, "Shock therapy done wrong. Normally, there aren't burns that bad." Jack ran his hand through his hair. What the fuck was going on? They exited the elevator and froze at the sound of gunfire. Jack reacted first pulling his Baretta and sprinting down the hall. Lee was huffing at his heels. Screams and the sound of crashes and glass breaking rose with the rise in gunshots. Jack skidded around the corner low. He raked through the chaos taking it in at a glance. A lone police officer crouched from the doorway of an ICU room. He had blood leaking from a wound in his forehead but valiantly kept three attackers at bay. It was apparent he was outgunned and about to be overrun. Three scraggly looking men with pistols fired. One from further down the hall, one from the nurse's station and the last from the hallway in front of Jack and Lee. Jack raised his pistol and took the guy out without slowing. He leaped over the man's sprawled body and skidded into a crouch behind the nurse's station. He felt the fiery contrail of a bullet whiz by his ear and ignored it shooting the man in front of him.

Warren knelt, took a few seconds lining up his shot and winged the final shooter. The sudden loss of the painfully loud gunfire seemed to echo with a palpable silence. Jack blinked and checked on the two he'd killed. He fought the need to double tap that had been ingrained in him a long time ago. 

"You good?" He called over the ringing in his ears. Warren who was cuffing the final shooter shot Jack a thumb's up. The man screamed as Lee wrangled him into cuffs none too gently. Doctors and nurses picked themselves up and scurried around the unit checking on patients and visitors. Jack crossed to the sole defender and smiled. The cop was young, pale and shaking with wide eyes. He held his Smith and Wesson half canted and stared at Jack blankly.

"Hey, kiddo, you ok?" The officer blinked then coughed. He nodded. Jack noted the kid was B. Mills from traffic, someone he wanted to talk to after he checked on Mac. With his heart thumping wildly, Jack dashed into the room. Mac laid unmoving in the center of the bed. He was ghostly white and had bandages wrapping his middle and a brace on his left arm and shoulder. He was attached to IV's and wore an O2 mask and heart monitor. Jack almost collapsed in relief. That was all. No ventilator, no web of tubes and wires.

He crossed to the bed. The wall above his bed had a constellation of pockmarked black dots covering its entire length. A burned circle in the pillow beside Mac's head showed how close the younger man had come to death. Jack closed his eyes and rubbed his eyes refusing to give in to the flood of emotions swirling through him. He looked up the heart monitor was a casualty. Jack's hand shook as he leaned over his partner and pushed his fingers into the blond's neck. He let out a long breath. Mac's pulse was slow, but even and stable.

Jack frowned and brushed aside his partner's bangs. On both of the kid's temples, Jack saw circles of raw bubbled skin. Burns. He saw similar marks on the kid's sides and wrists. Jack took in the room. Shattered glass glinted across the entire room, and bed like a layer of ice and the perforated curtain hung limply pulled halfway to the floor. The shooters had poured a lot of rounds into this room, it had been a hit. Jack ran a hand gently down the kid's cheek.

"What the hell are you caught up in, brother?"


	2. Chapter 2

Jack sipped the stale coffee as he sat watching Mac. The zoo on the other side of the broken window did nothing for a sense of privacy especially with the curtain so full of holes. All the cop types and Matty were having a pow-wow at the end of the hall. Cage was doing her thing with the wounded shooter. Riley and Bozer were at Phoenix pooling all the information together. Jack sighed and put a hand out to cover Mac's.

He was doing what he did best, take care of his boy. Matty had arranged transport to Phoenix Medical, they were waiting for all the doctors to get together and exchange info so Mac's transition was smooth. Everyone knew Jack would not be leaving his partner's side.

Considering he got mowed down by a car going over 70mph, Mac didn't look too bad. He had a horseshoe-shaped cut stitched over his left eye and spots where glass shards were still working their way out. Three cracked ribs. Unfortunately, the snapped bones were on the same side, in a row near the L3 and L4 vertebrae not far from the spine. With the swelling, the agony was impossible for Jack to imagine. The doctors assured him Mac would be able to walk, but it would be a terrible idea. They likened it to having a firey wrecking ball sinking through your kidneys to your hips then just sitting there burning. Jack squirmed thinking about it. Mac had surgery to relieve cardiac tamponade or fluid putting pressure on his heart and came through it with flying colors. His shoulder had been dislocated and he'd had to have surgery to fix some sort of something or other part of a bone so it could be reset. Again, Mac flew through the operation without any problems. The only other visible injuries were blotches of bruises covering most of his waxy white skin and the burns.

Jack fought a yawn. He'd been up almost at midnight to pick Mac up at the airport; it was now rounding on noon. He looked down and rubbed his eyes. A soft moan had his head snapping back up with excitement. Mac's face twisted with pain and he tightened his grip on Jack's hand. Jack grinned and leaned forward brushing the kid's bangs away from his face. Mac hissed in a breath then held it, his eyes snapped open and he looked around him wildly. Jack could feel his entire body tighten. Jack frowned. This anxious reaction wasn't all from physical trauma. Jack could see Mac's pulse throb in his neck. Panic entered the younger man's eyes.

"Mac! MAC! Breathe, dammit!" Jack put a hand gently on Mac's chest. Mac's blue eyes slowly tracked to his face, and his arm reached out to grab the front of Jack's shirt, "Angus MacGyver, BREATHE!" Jack's voice snapped across the room and caused the hall outside to go silent. Mac opened his mouth and managed to let out a gasp. Jack sat on the side of his bed and began to run his hand softly up and down Mac's uninjured arm. Jack spoke using his wounded-MacGyver voice-a combination of the encouragement he'd use to coax a cat out of a tree and the reassurance he'd give to a frightened horse.

"Easy, brother. You're safe. Shhh. That's it, calm down kiddo. Breathe...that's it." Mac slowly began to breathe normally. His eyes roved the room taking in the shot up walls and decor. Mac closed his eyes and released his death grip from Jack's shirt to rub his forehead.

"Where am I?" He asked. Jack frowned. Mac's voice was off, not in pain exactly more tired and desperate.

"Good Sam. You were hit wondering across the 101." Mac winced touching the circles burned in his temples. He looked up at the ceiling. Jack could see he was bracing himself for pain. Jack put a hand in the middle of Mac's chest forestalling any movement. Mac grimaced at the gentle pressure and glared at Jack. Jack narrowed his eyes. Mac's gaze was tight with impatience. Seeing Jack's assessing look, Mac took a deep breath and relaxed. Jack smiled but wondered what Mac was hiding.

"How long have I been here?"

"They brought you in about the same time as you were supposed to be flying in from Boston." Mac swallowed and nodded rubbing his forehead. Jack felt his worry flame into irritation, "Since you aren't even going to pretend to feel guilty about worrying decades my life away, tell me what's going on." Mac did look guilty and turned his head away.

"I'm sorry, Jack. I don't remember much…" Jack frowned. At first, he thought Mac was bullshitting him, but Mac turned and looked at him steadily. Jack sighed, willing to go along with it for now. He opened his mouth to ask another question when Phoenix transport wheeled a cart to the door of the ICU room. Mac blanched and closed his eyes.

"This is going to suck," Mac mumbled. Jack squeezed his hand tighter.

"Yeah, I think it is." It did. Mac bit a hole in his lip to keep from screaming as they slid him onto a board then used that board to push him to the gurney. Mac's eyes fluttered closed during the change, and he remained limp as he was attached to a monitor, oxygen and IV. The two medics, both men Jack didn't know, bundled him up and started wheeling Mac toward the ambulance entrance.

"Sally not on today?" He asked. One medic a swarthy man with a black man-bun smiled.

"No, thank god." Jack chuckled and nodded. He looked over at the other man. He was an older blond haired blue eyed man, precisely cut from the military cloth. He smiled at Jack.

"I'm John Jenkins; he's Ward Fallon." Jack nodded. He jumped as his phone rang.

"Yeah?"

"Jack, where the hell are you two? Sally's been waiting for ten minutes." Jack felt ice flush his veins. He smiled.

"Well, Matty, I guess we just had to get a jump on it with those two new guys you hired, you know John Jenkins and Ward Fallon, they might they know what they're doing. We're already en route in an ambulance."

"Ok, Jack. We're tracking you now."

"Thanks, boss. Always a pleasure." Jack slid his phone back into his jacket pocket, "That Matty, has to micromanage everything." Ward rolled his eyes.

"Ain't that the truth." Jack almost thought he got away with it, but his eyes clashed with Jenkins a little too hard. They both moved at the same time. Jack grabbed the portable monitor and slammed it into Fallon's head. Fallon caught utterly by surprise groaned and slumped forward over Mac's midsection. The blonde woke up crying out in pain. Jenkins smiled and pulled Mac's hair back holding a scalpel at his carotid.

"Who are you? You aren't a cop." Jack frowned. The bad guy didn't know who he was? Jack glanced at him as he held his hands up. Mac's eyes glittered with tears of pain. When he saw he had Jack's attention the younger man moved his eyes over to the rear doors of the ambulance. Jack's eyes widened, and he shook his head. Mac rolled his eyes and glared at Jack with a stern scowl.

"Who are you?" Jenkins hissed. Jack stepped forward bumping into the back of the gurney. He tilted his chin at Mac and gave the blonde a questioning look. Mac shot him a devilish grin. Jack rolled his eyes and lowered his hands.

"You gut us, we aren't cops," Jack said apologetically. He stepped back keeping his right foot hooked under the edge of Mac's cart. Jenkins stared at him. He knew Jack was up to something but couldn't figure out what it was. Jack leaned back as far as he could. Ward took that moment to shake his head and move to sitting. Jack took advantage of the second of distraction opened the back doors of the ambulance, pulled Mac forward then hopping on top of his partner as if he were on a surfboard heading for a bitchin' bomb. Jack kicked off and pushed them out of the ambulance. Mac screamed in pain. Jack cried in terror as they suddenly found themselves wheeling wildly through traffic. It wasn't moving fast, but it was dense. They bounced off the fender of a blue truck, hit the bumper of a swerving garbage truck, and tumbled over to the tarmac hard. Jack pulled Mac close yanking off the belt around the younger man just in time. The rear of the garbage truck snagged the bottom of the gurney and dragged it away in a shower of sparks. Jack scooped up Mac and staggered toward the side of the freeway. He closed his eyes and yelled waiting for the metallic crash that would finally end his and Mac's life.

Instead, he heard a screech of wheels, a door open in front of him and a woman's voice,

"Get in! Hurry!" Jack blinked. The car was a rusted Chevy Malibu

That might have been a classic if it wasn't so patched and broken. Jack hauled Mac into the back seat and slammed the door shut. The driver, a tall, thin woman with collar length jet black hair and an elongated neck, shot Jack a smile. Her black eyes popped out of her pale face giving her a macabre goth look belied by her professional gray suit that shimmered like expensive Italian silk.

"Hi, I'm Maggie. Is Mac ok?" Jack blinked at her surprised. She began to slide in and around traffic as well as an operator. Was she an agent?

"He's been better." Maggie shook her head and pulled hair away

From her face. She glanced at Mac worried, "I was hoping to reach him before Cohn, and his boys grabbed him, but I missed him. You must be Jack?" Jack gaped at her.

"Yeah, who are you?" Maggie gave him a wild look.

"I'm a friend of Mac's; we met in the loony bin." The woman grinned and began to sing "Singing in the Rain." Maggie didn't know all the words she would break off humming or skip to "These hills are alive." Jack shook his head and turned to Mac. Jack backed as far as he could to the door and straightened Mac out leaving his bare legs to dangle off the back seat.

"Shit," Jack muttered. The dressings on Mac's chest were seeping through with blood.

"What's amatter?" Maggie said glancing back worried. Jack pulled Mac's upper body onto his lap and brushed the hair away from Mac's cool, clammy skin, "You really are his brother aren't you." Maggie said softly. Jack looked at her surprised.

"He said that?"

"Yeah, sorta. Mac also said you're kind of a nanny. I couldn't sometimes tell if he loved you or wanted to strangle you." Jack chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised."

"I'm surprised though, I thought you'd be taller and a lot older. You aren't half as old as he said." Jack raised an eyebrow making a note to discuss that with his partner at a later date, "So what's the plan?"

"We need to get another car."

"Steal a car? Cool." Maggie turned and skidded across two lanes of traffic bounced over a rumble strip and slid down a ramp. Jack braced one hand on the seat in front of him and one across Mac's chest. His heart tripped faster than it did when facing the three gunmen. Maggie began singing another mix of show tunes this time "Circle of Life" and "Tomorrow." Jack shook his head. Maybe they'd have been better off with their kidnappers, "You don't got any gum do ya?" Maggie asked as if she wasn't whipping across traffic like a pinball.

"No." Jack squeaked closing his eyes as they almost hit a light pole.

"Damn. They wouldn't give it to us, dunno why. Do you think you could hurt yourself with gum?" Jack had no chance to answer as Maggie jumped a curb and skidded to a halt in a parking space beside a small Subaru SUV. She looked over at it and smiled, "I always wanted one of these." Jack had to admit the woman had good taste. It would be roomy enough to lay Mac out in the back and had tinted windows making it harder for them to be identified. Maggie bounced out of the car and skipped over to the black vehicle. Jack's eyebrows raised in surprise. The professional suit was wrinkled and hung off the lanky woman in the shoulders and waist, but was apparently too small in the arms and skirt length. Clearly appropriated from someone else.

Maggie wore blue clogs and no socks. Jack suspected that was part of the inpatient uniform. She lifted her foot and took off her right clog. She pulled out two long shiny tools and had the passenger side door open in seconds. Jack noticed there was tape that Maggie used to put them back in her shoe. She leaned in and opened the back sliding door. Jack grinned. He slid out of the Malibu's door and gently pulled Mac after him. Grunting Jack lifted his partner in his arms and staggered around the car to the Subaru.

Jack felt a pang of guilt. In the rear of the vehicle, there was a plastic swimming raft already blown up and piles of swim gear. Some evidently belonged to children. Maggie had set out the cushion and covered it with an oversized _Finding Nemo_ towel. Jack gently eased Mac onto the narrow bed and straightened his hospital gown. Maggie laid a _Transformers_ towel over Mac. She paused looking down at Mac with a loving smile. She straightened his head and patted his hair. Maggie bent down and kissed Mac on the forehead. Jack smiled wondering if the woman had a crush on the kid.

"Ok, let's get outta here." He said moving to climb into the Subaru.

"Wait! What about the bodies?" Maggie asked with wide eyes. Jack froze.

"Bodies?" Maggie nodded over to their old transport. Jack felt his heart drop, "In the trunk?" Maggie nodded and tugged her hair over her ears.

"I didn't do it; they were there when we stole the car." Jack shot her a puzzled look but filed his questions away for later.

"Do you have your…" Jack waved at Maggie's clogs.

"Lockpicks? Mac made them for me out of a soda can. Ooooh, I can still taste it Grape Crush. I hadn't had soda for so long…" Jack cleared his throat, "Oh right, sorry." She hopped out and had the trunk open in seconds. Jack frowned. Maggie apparently knew her way around B and E. He shook his head more questions on hold. He leaned forward. Three paramedics were stacked awkwardly in the trunk. Even with the larger trunks cars in the '70s had it was still a tight fit. Jack could see where a couple of arms and a neck had been broken to make them fit. There was one woman and two burly men all wearing Good Sam paramedic uniforms. The original ambulance crew. All three shot full of holes. Jack guessed Mac's would be assassins were responsible. He went to move the top body when he heard a too familiar click.

Jack grabbed Maggie and threw her to the ground covering her with his body. The car exploded into a massive fireball. Jack gritted his teeth as the hot breath of fire raked his back. He shook his head trying to clear away the ringing and cobwebs. Maggie wiggled out from under him and grabbed his arm. Jack stood up and staggered a step. Maggie turned to move to the driver's side.

"Uh-uh, you get shotgun." Maggie glared at him then shrugged. 

"Never driven before anyway." Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. He climbed into the driver's seat and sparked the wires under the dash starting the engine in one quick move. Maggie slammed the back door nimbly jumped over Mac and hopped into the passenger's side. She put on the bottom of the seat belt but left the shoulder dangling behind her. She straddled the middle console, so she faced Jack and Mac.

"Yes!" Maggie cried. She reached into an ashtray and pulled out a wad of gum. Jack felt his stomach flip-flop as Maggie popped it into her mouth and chewed. She closed her eyes in bliss.

"Cinnamon! That's my fave. I think all those mints are fake and made from cleaning chemicals, don't you? I have yet to hear about a freemint tree or herb. But cinnamon, that's the bomb." She hummed and rocked as Jack drove out of the parking lot with the rest of the exiting cars. Jack could see the sparkle of emergency vehicles coming through traffic. Jack turned in the opposite direction. Thankfully the explosion's force had been directed up to do the most damage to whoever opened the trunk. The paint on the side of the Subaru had cracked, and the tinting on the window had bubbled and peeled, but the SUV ran flawlessly.

Maggie kicked her feet back and forth clapping her clogs against the bottom of her feet. Jack pulled out his phone and hit speed dial. Maggie sang "Memory." Oddly, this one she knew all the words too.

"Jack? What's going on?" Mattie demanded. Jack glanced back at Mac. Blood from his chest was beginning to seep through the colorful beach towel.

"Well, Mattie, we have a bit of a situation here."


	3. Chapter 3

Mac cried out and automatically tried to pull away from the nuclear explosion of pain blowing across his lower back.

"Easy, brother. We're almost there." Mac reached out blindly toward Jack's voice and grabbed a handful of a sweaty T-shirt. Mac gasped for air and forced his swollen eyes open. He realized he was moving and he was in Jack's arms.

"Wh-" Mac murmured. He forced himself to relax and closed his eyes burying his face in Jack's chest. Jack smiled and tucked Mac in closer. He didn't realize that rather than a sign of affection it was in part because the idea of Jack carrying him was scary as hell, partly because it was the only way to take some of the pressure off his sore back, and if Mac was perfectly honest, he did find it reassuring.

Mac felt a temperature drop and realized they were walking inside.

"Wow! This place is awesome!" Mac smiled recognizing the voice. He heard Jack say something but it was a loud buzzing through his partner's chest. Mac yelled in pain as Jack laid him flat on a bed. Tears dripped out the corner of his eyes, and he found he couldn't take in any air. Mac looked up at Jack feeling the room close around him like a pillow pushed on his face. Mac tried to say Jack's name, but he couldn't get air. Mac clutched Jack's shirt; it was the only thing keeping his head above the flood of pain and fear.

"Hey, hey...easy, brother. I know it hurts but you have to breathe." Mac wheezed. Jack sat beside Mac on the edge of the bed. He leaned closer and gently rolled the blond onto his side. Jack rubbed Mac's upper back with a soft touch, "C'mon, bro, breathe for me ok?" Mac closed his eyes. The pain lessened slightly he forced himself to breathe out. Mac groaned in pain as he fought to take a shallow breath then force it out. The pain was indescribable, definitely one of the worst he'd ever experienced. His body began to shake, "In and out...that's it kiddo." Mac concentrated on his brother's coaching.

From miles away he heard others in the room. Jack talked over his head to Doc Carl. The young doctor put a hand lightly on Mac's shoulder.

"Hey, Mac, just keep breathing ok?" Mac managed to shoot Doc Carl a desperate glance. Other people were moving in the room. Mac couldn't concentrate past the screaming of his nerves. He moaned and managed to wheeze in another round of breathing. He jumped when Doc Carl stabbed him in the hip with a needle. Mac glared up at Jack the rest of his pain forgotten for a heartbeat. Jack grinned down at him.

"Don't look at me there ol' hoss; I didn't do it." Jack reached out and brushed the hair away from his sweaty forehead. Mac surprised himself by leaning into the gesture. He reached out a hand, and Jack took it without a word. Mac cried out again as someone prodded his lower back. A warmth began to spread through his bones. His eyes slid shut, and he was too tired to open them again. It didn't matter somehow. The others in the room became blurry and static. Mac felt his body moved, and pain blazed into life but his muscles were too heavy and it was far away…

Jack let out a deep breath as his partner's body relaxed and he slid into sleep. Jack looked at Doc Carl as the doctor rolled Mac onto his back and removed the bloodsoaked dressing. Doc Carl glanced up at Jack.

"A few stitches pulled loose; he's going to be fine, Jack." Jack reached over and put a hand on the doc's shoulder.

"Thanks, that is a...a big relief." Doc Carl smiled and turned to take care of Mac. Jack looked at Matty who stood at the door. She nodded for Jack to join the others in the main room of the safe house. Jack took one last second to brush at Mac's bangs then followed the diminutive woman. Doc Carl closed the door behind them.

The safe house had four bedrooms and a kitchenette that framed a spacious living room filled with old furniture. Jack took in everyone present, Lee Warren, Matty, Riley, Bozer, and Cage. He opened to ask where Maggie was when a shout came from the kitchenette.

"Knives! Forks! Oh man, this is awesome. Have you ever tried to eat steak with a spoon, oh this is…" The tall woman broke off as she joined the others. She wore a fluffy white bathrobe and a towel turbaned around wet hair. She carried a plate with two cheeseburgers and a mountain of fries. She stabbed them with a fork. Jack guessed it was just because she could, "Sorry, didn't know it was group time. Is Mac ok?" Her dark eyes studied Jack. Jack nodded. Maggie flipped her hair back and sprawled in a recliner huffing out in relief.

"Ok, so who are you?" Matty started. Maggie glanced up then focused on her food.

"Maggie Blue."

"Seriously?" Jack asked. Maggie looked up at him and nodded. She saw Riley typing on her computer and shrugged chomping down a third of a burger in one bite. Riley looked up at her.

"Says here that you died three years ago in Seattle." Maggie sighed taking a minute to swallow. She wiped grease and mustard off her chin with the sleeve of the robe.

"In a way I did, I guess. My family put me in Carlsbad and left." Maggie's face fell, "They wrote me off…" She sniffed then shrugged and returned to her food.

"Ok, let's start at the beginning, how did you meet Mac?"

"He came in. He was trying to act crazy, but he just didn't have it." Maggie shrugged and set aside the empty plate licking her lips. She pulled her knees to her chest and grinned at everyone in the room, "I was curious because that is not the kind of place someone admits themselves voluntarily. It's all hoity-toity until you're through the doors and you hear the key, or actually buzz, but you know what I mean. Most come in strung out, or suicidal sometimes we got a live one who saw things, one time I had a roommate whose voices told her jokes…"

"Maggie, when did Mac come in?" Cage interrupted. Maggie licked her fingers and frowned.

"A week ago? Maybe a few more days? I'm not sure. It's been a long time since I measured days instead of therapy groups. He came in on Mac and Cheese day. He traded me noodles for my Salsbury steak." Maggie scoffed, "New patient mistake. Anyway, that's always on a Monday. He came in looking for somebody named Percy."

"Percy? Who the hell is Percy?" Bozer asked looking at Jack. Jack shrugged. He had never heard the name before. Riley looked up and shook her head. She couldn't find anyone connected to Mac named Percy.

"Did he find him?" Lee asked. Maggie shrugged her hair out of the towel and dried her ear.

"Nah, he'd already gone down the Quiet hall. No one ever comes back." Everyone leaned forward. Jack uncrossed his arms. His hands curled into fists.

"What do you mean Quiet hall?" Cage asked holding out a hand to quiet the Delta. Maggie shrugged and shook her head. Bozer leaned back and wiped drops off his arm.

"That's what they always called it, kinda ironic because of all the screams that came from down there." The entire room stilled. Cage knelt in front of Maggie so the woman would focus on her. Maggie smiled and reached out a hand to feel Cage's hair.

"Cool hair." Cage smiled and took Maggie's hand in hers.

"Maggie, please tell us about Percy." Maggie sighed and looked away her eyes moist.

"He came in a couple of weeks before Mac. He was a mess he was high as a kite and kept babbling about Heaven and the Cohn brothers. He had a few rough days, but he was nice. He didn't know how to keep Mac and Cheese either." Maggie whispered the last conspiratorily.

"Do you know his last name?" Lee Warren asked. Maggie frowned.

"I'm not sure he had one, he was off the streets you could tell. He had all the tats and three tears in each eye." Jack's eyebrows raised and he looked over at Riley who was typing.

"Nothing in California, checking nationwide, but a bit vague." Maggie giggled.

"He talked all tough. I bet if he were in his colors he'd be scary but wearing white patient clothes and clogs...no one's scary. Maybe that's the point?" Cage leaned forward to catch her attention. Maggie smiled, "Right, sorry. I guess Percy did something to cross the Cohn brothers and they took something from him, something that had to do with him getting to Heaven. Didn't seem a bible thumper, but you never know how Carlsbad changes somebody. Anyway, he started demanding information about the Cohn brothers. One night all the orderlies come out and take him back to the Quiet hall. Never saw him after that."

"Riley?" Matty asked.

"I can't find any record of the Cohn brothers." Maggie laughed.

"That's because they're ghosts. Nobody's seen them, but everybody jumps whenever their names are said. They're like the boogyman at Carlsbad. When Mac came asking about Percy, it stirred up all the staff. Then Mac broke into the Quiet hall; he came back. I don't know how. He was upset saying we had to get outta there; I was like DUH!"

"We broke in, Percy was there, but we couldn't get him. Mac and me ran out; I got to dress up like the Admin-bitch. It was fun. Then Mac stole that beautiful Malibu. We stayed at a hotel. Mac was gone all night. I went to find him. He'd broken into Carlsbad, I guess. They came running out with every siren in the whole town going off. They hopped into a blue car and took off. I kept the Malibu and came down here...after." Maggie rubbed her face and shrugged, "I looked in the trunk trying to figure out what to do next and found the dead people. They didn't blow up then, though." Maggie looked at Jack. Jack shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

"So you came down here looking for Mac?" Cage asked. Maggie shrugged.

"I figured the Cohn brothers got him and killed the paras from Good Sam and I've never been to LA so...Kismet!" Maggie stood up flattening her wild hair.

"Anything else? I wanna nap." A quick glance at the others and Cage smiled and nodded. Maggie waved and went to the room closest to Mac's.

"I think that story had a few holes in it." Bozer mused.

"No kidding," Riley said.

"At least she gave us a lead. Who is this Percy guy?" Jack said.

"Her story does fit with some of the info I got from the other guys." Warren said clearing his throat, "Ben from Traffic, who says to say thank you to you Jack by the way," Jack smiled, "He was coming to interview Mac. A rental Acura was dragged out of the Los Angeles River."

"What? That's like 700 miles from where Mac crossed the 101." Jack asked his frustration showing through, "I am seriously not liking all these gaps in the story."

"Well, it get's worse." Matty said, "They found a large bore bullet hole in the middle of the driver's seat."

"CSI found two different traces of blood; one is Mac's, the other is running through lab now," Riley said.

"Probably that Percy dude." Bozer offered.

"That still doesn't explain the whole Boston side of this," Cage said. The others looked at her surprised. She crossed her arms, "Riley ran Mac's phone, its last location was at Logan up until the time his plane left."

"Well either Mac has finally figured out how to make that quantum transporter there's somebody else in on whatever this is." Jack declared. Matty nodded.

"Ok, Cage and Bozer go to Massachusetts figure out what Mac was up to out there." Matty started.

"I'll head up to Carlsbad," Lee said standing up and pulling up his pants.

"I'll go with you, Riley you hold down the fort here. And Jack…" Jack nodded and looked over at Mac's door.

"I'll get the story out of the horse's mouth," He gave the others a grim look, "And keep him from getting his fool head blown off. "


	4. Chapter 4

The neighborhood looked as if it was from the time when all the kids could play in the street together with no worries of danger. The houses were small bungalows on tiny sparsely covered green lawns. Looking closer, Bozer noted the bars on the windows, the cages behind the front screen door, and the chainlink fences. All of the windows curtains prevented anyone from the street seeing what was inside. Bozer reminded himself that he'd crossed four time zones and it was dinner time.

"I think this is it." Cage said glancing at her phone. They pulled up in front of a red house with white trim. An old tan sedan sat in the drive. Cage parked along the street. Both teammates took a second to stretch and get their bearings. The Phoenix jet had gone as fast as it dared, but it was still a seven-hour straight run landing them in the middle of high traffic. Bozer had spent years in LA traffic, but it was nothing compared to Massachusetts. The drivers veered through lanes at insane speeds without concern for other cars or street signs. Bozer's stomach was still unsettled. Cage had fit right in, actually scaring some of the drivers into backing away. Bozer wondered what the hell it was like to drive in Australia.

The pair walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Cage and Bozer heard a loud buzz echo through the house. No one came to the door, but they could see the corner of a window curtain slide aside. Riley opened the screen door and knocked on the metal safety door.

"What do you want?" The voice was female, low and husky.

"We're here about Angus MacGyver," Bozer called.

"Never heard of him, go away."

"Look, we know his phone was here for the past two or three weeks. You can talk to us or the cops."

"Let me see your badges." Cage and Bozer shared a frown.

"We aren't the police. We're friends of Mac's." Bozer called. There was a long pause then the front door opened a crack. A thin woman of color with freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks and wide reddened eyes peeked out. Her dark eyes scanned them thoroughly up and down.

"No idea what you're talking about." She mumbled.

"He came out here to help you didn't he?" Cage asked. The woman paused.

"I don't know what you mean." The woman sniffled. Cage stepped close. Bozer watched impressed.

"Look, whatever's wrong we can help, but we have to know what's going on." Cage's tone was soft, friendly, supportive. The woman's teary eyes looked with Cage's. She nodded and opened the door. She stepped back.

"Watch out for Allie; he's cautious around strangers." Bozer followed Cage in expecting to be greeted by a growling dog. Instead of a cat the size of a schnauzer with one narrowed yellow eye, black and white splotches, and a half-torn ear. Bozer took a step forward with a smile only to stop when a growl that sounded like the house itself was threatening the invaders. Bozer took a step back and instinctively took a step behind Cage. Cage rolled her eyes.

"I'm Imani Emeka, would you like some soda?" Cage studied the woman as they followed her into the living room. The room was small and painted a pale mustard. The worn furniture was covered with papers, toys, and other debris of daily lives. Cage waited until Imani perched on the soft brown couch. As she sat, she noticed many toys scattered around the room. The toys were apparently for an eight to ten-year-old girl. Imani followed Cage's gaze. She stood up and crossed to a picture on an entertainment center. She held it out to Cage.

Imani was younger in the picture, no so much in years but in experience. Her face was smooth; her eyes jumped out of the frame with a spark of joy. She held a girl, obviously her daughter, in puffy pigtails grinning at the camera with a perfect smile. Cage turned to Bozer who was leaning forward staring at Allie's bulky body. The tom sat on the back of the couch staring at Bozer as if he was waiting to strike at any movement. Bozer moved slowly and took the picture. He scooted forward as Allie let loose with another body growl and snapped his tail against the couch.

"She is beautiful," Bozer said honestly. He grinned. The girl was going to break a lot of hearts when she got older. Imani smiled as if Bozer had given her the biggest compliment in the world.

"Thank you, I just wish…" Imani broke off turning away as she burst into muted sobs. Cage stood up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened to her?"

"She was taken from preschool. I went to the police, the FBI, anyone who would listen." Imani turned around her sadness replaced with anger, "They said they'd keep looking for her. Other than posters and ads they won't do anything." Imani sniffed putting the picture back. As she talked, she ran a finger across the photo as if she could touch her daughter through the frame.

"So Mac came out to help?" Imani turned smiling.

"He showed up out of nowhere. Mac knows Heaven's father, Percy. Percy called him to help get her back."

"Percy?"

"Percy Cohn," Her voice cracked, and she turned wiping under her eyes. Her tone changed to one of anger and bitterness, "One of the worst mistakes of my life. He's Heaven's father. He didn't have the guts to come to me himself, so Mac came. The day after he got here, I found Heaven's favorite doll on her bed. It was a porcelain replica of her. Percy had bought it for Heaven before he abandoned us. The doll..her face was cut off and covered in blood." Imani closed her eyes. Cage could see her shake.

"A message to Percy." Cage said.

"Do you think Heaven was taken because of him?" Imani's eyes flared with anger.

"I know it does. Other than Heaven, that man had done his level best to ruin every good thing in my life." Bozer and Cage shared a glance, "I don't know how he even knew where I was. He hasn't seen Heaven since she was a baby. God, I hate that man sometimes." The quiet was electrical with her anger.

"So Mac came to help?" Bozer asked gently.

"Yeah, he was up here for a wedding I guess. I wonder if he got to go to it."

"What did he do while he was here?" Cage asked.

"I don't know. Mac said he'd wondered the streets. I guess he knows Boston pretty well. Mac left me his phone and a list of texts to send to someone named Jack. Then at a particular time, I was supposed to send his phone, the doll and papers he gave me with his flight out of Logan. He was only here a couple of days."

"Did you hear anything from him after that?"

"No. I keep wishing...hoping, but…?" The silence filled with the absence of a happy child and grief of a broken home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So you're the boss I've heard so much about?" Lee said. He sprawled in the driver's seat, his elbow leaning on the door. Matty smiled at him.

"Yep, and believe every word." Warren chuckled. He thought the diminutive woman was beautiful and had the most deep soft-soul eyes he'd ever seen, but he also saw the edge of danger lurking there. He did not doubt that Matty would be a formidable enemy.

"Really? They only had good things to say." Lee said. Matty chuckled.

"That means I'm not doing my job very well."

"Somehow I doubt that." Matty smiled at him.

"Detective Warren, are you flirting with me?" Lee felt his face color a shade of pink.

"Is that a problem?" He asked. Mattie studied him and shrugged.

"I'll get back to you." They rode the rest of the way to Carlsbad in companionable silence, "It's beautiful up here." Matty noted as they drove past miles of the most beautiful coast either had seen before.

"Shame we're up here to chase snakes around a loony bin," Lee said with a sour frown. Matty narrowed her eyes watching the suburban neighborhoods pass. Detective Warren turned down a long paved one lane road with a neat sign saying "Carlsbad Mental Health: Private pay clients only." The winding road crossed a small lush lawn.

The building they parked in front of looked like a school built in the 70s. It was a bland square brick building. A few limp plants hung half dead and neglected in white stone gardens. The place had an old institutional feel.

"Here we go, right into their nest. " Matty growled. As they walked up the worn sidewalk, Lee turned to look at her.

"Are you sure these will pass?" Lee held up a folder of papers. Matty shot him a dirty look, "Sorry, forget I asked. I'm used to waiting a year to get a hold of a judge to sign papers."

"Who needs a judge when you have a Riley?" Matty asked. Lee held the door open for her. The lobby that greeted them looked like a waiting room in a dental office. Uncomfortable plastic chairs, half-dead potted trees, worn tile, and a greeter behind glass that was obviously meant to be bulletproof. Matty let Detective Warren do the talking. She scanned the door that led from the small lobby. It was a wide double door with wired windows made of the same thick glass. A keypad hung beside a phone and a sign that said "call for admittance." A face looked out the window at her. She couldn't tell if it was male or female, but the doughy white face seemed to be pleading with her, the light-colored eyes begging for help. Matty heard a scream and the sound of a scuffle. The face vanished from the window.

Matty pulled a loose strand of hair back from her face. Something about this asylum made her feel dirty and very uneasy. Lee turned around and nodded. They walked to the double door and waited until a nurse in a severe spotless white uniform met them. Her dark hair folded into a beehive and she glared at them her face giving nothing away.

"I'm Tabitha, Doctor Nelson is waiting for you in conference room 4." Matty was surprised when Tabitha locked the door behind them then strode away up the long hallway.

"They just let us stroll around? Doesn't that seem wrong to you?" Lee asked. Matty nodded and stepped quickly down the hall. Rooms lined both sides of the corridor. Some looked like regular hospital rooms only with the beds bolted to the floor and locking windowed doors. As they walked down the hall, the rooms became emptier until the last open doorway which led to a white-tiled room with a mattress on the floor. All of the patients wore grey sweats, white T-shirts, and blue clogs. It had the feeling of a prison; Matty paused when they came to a large room. No, this was worse.

A nurse's station which looked like a terrarium stretched the length of one wall. Matty could see the staff all sitting at desks on the phone, charting or getting meds out of Pyxis machines. In all the hospitals she'd ever been in, it was easy to find the nurses talking around the water cooler, so to speak, or mixing with the patients. These nurses in their starched white looked more like guards who didn't dare show any humanity.

Most of the room was a lunch area that probably doubled as a group therapy room and activity room. A wheeled cart of bibles and puzzles looked like the only activity. The far wall had a strip of windows the bottom half was a cloudy white; the top opened from the ceiling down. All windows had bars. Matty only saw seven patients. They all sat at the tables listlessly staring into space or coloring. Three patients huddled together putting together a puzzle that was obviously missing half its pieces. Matty frowned. Every one of the patients had circular marks like Mac, but none so burnt.

There was another double door on the far wall and beside that a short hallway. Matty followed Lee down the hall. Open doors to conference room lined both sides. The largest at the end of the hall was number 4. Matty smiled, putting on her game face. Before they entered the room, a blood-curdling scream rattled through the wall. Matty shared a look with Lee.

"Ah, you the ones with the court order?" A bulky man with light brown eyes and sun-kissed hair said from the door in front of them. To the casual observer, he was open and friendly, the kind of guy you'd be ok with telling all your problems. Matty and Lee looked at each other and shared knowing smiles. They quickly saw this paper facade for what it was-fake as a counterfeit 1000 dollar bill.

"Yes, Doctor?" Lee put on his best-bored Detective implacability. Under his gaze, the doctor squirmed.

"Doctor Jason Lubeman." The man spun and retreated into the room without offering to shake hands or letting Lee and Matty say a word.

"Well, let's not take that personally," Warren growled. Matty chuckled. The conference room obviously had had a conference in it for a very long time. Stacks of folders covered the center table. Charts and graphs and shelves of books and equipment Matty didn't recognize lined every wall. It was claustrophobic. Lubeman sat on the end of the table in a chair that looked more like a throne on wheels. He didn't offer the Phoenix pair chairs. Lee smiled walked up to a chair covered in files, grabbed the pile and dropped them on the floor. He slid the chair over for Matty. The detective repeated the action and pulled a chair closer. Lubeman's face colored enough to start into the purple spectrum. Matty smiled sweetly.

"We are here for the records of one of your patients, Angus MacGyver." Lubeman leaned back and templed his hands. He gave them a slow smug smile.

"I can't give out that information." Detective Warren slapped the papers down. Lubeman grimaced and took his time studying and reading every word on every sheet in the folder. He sat back and sighed.

"He came in two weeks ago, tragic case."

"Oh?" Matty asked. Her heart fluttered.

"He was actively suicidal. Isolated, wouldn't eat...very sad. We tried ECT, but I'm afraid it didn't work. He signed himself out. The Carlsbad police informed us that his rental was dragged from a river. It's my professional opinion he committed suicide. Why are you investigating him?" Lee leaned forward. His bright eyes eyed the doctor like a hawk ready to dive after prey.

"We're pretty sure it wasn't suicide." Doctor Lubeman's nervousness was real, his concern not so much.

"That...is unbelievable. Mr. MacGyver did not strike me as the type of man to make mortal enemies. What can I do to help?"

"We'd like his file, and we'd like a tour of the facility." Lubeman leaned forward and looked down at her. The room was thick with his condescending arrogance. Matty finally understood what Jack meant by punch-face.

"I'm afraid I can't do either at this time. His chart has not come back from dictation yet, we probably won't get it for another week, and I'm sorry that court order does not allow you to disrupt the other patient's treatment. If there is nothing else, I must return to my duties." Lubeman stood up and glared at Matty and Lee.

"Thanks, Jason, appreciate your time." Warren turned on his heel and strode out. Matty followed him trying to hide her grin. The doctor behind them colored to a dark purple with his anger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack came out of the shower feeling more awake. He crossed to Riley who sat cross-legged on the couch tapping on her laptop.

"Doc Carl leave?"

"Yeah, he left some meds. Mac's supposed to be on bedrest for the next week, we know how long that'll last." Jack rubbed his face and nodded. He heard voices coming from Mac's room. Riley caught his look, "Maggie's been sitting with him the last half hour." Jack nodded and padded silently to the closed door. He leaned forward listening.

"Hey, Macaroni? You waking up?" Jack could hear Mac give a soft moan.

"Maggie Blue? What are you doing here?" Mac's voice was thick and slurred by medication and pain.

"Your bro-nanny's in the shower I thought he'd want you to have company. You look like shit."

"Thanks."

"I like your posse, especially your bro-nanny. He cares a lot about you and isn't half as old as you said." Jack could imagine Mac's wry smile.

"That's Jack," Mac said that as if it explained everything.

"Why don't you tell them anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"I told them everything I know, but they're worried about you Macaroni. Tell them what the hell is going on." There was a long pause. Jack wondered if Mac had fallen asleep.

"I can't, Mags. Not all of it anyway."

"Why not?"

"I don't remember everything. After they shocked me...there are gaps…" Jack frowned his worry for his partner going up a notch. How could he keep Mac safe if they had no idea who was trying to kill him?


	5. Chapter 5

**Cambridge, MA**

 **Two weeks ago**

The hotel had a panoramic view of Boston harbor. Mac had spent the extra money and considered it well worth it. He sighed and pulled off his tie. With practiced ease, he unwrapped himself from the classic black tux. Frankie's wedding had been lovely. Mac thought of the light flush in Frankie's face. It had given Mac a chance to walk the halls of MIT once more and catch up with his friends.

Scott Jensen, Frankie's husband, had seemed a reliable, decent man. Mac rubbed his forehead and changed into Jeans and a T-shirt. Scott reminded Mac of Jack; only he knew Scott had passed more than his fair share of science and math classes. Scott kept up with Frankie's research. Mac suspected Scott had taken extra time to learn about it when he met Frankie. No one would ever be as smart as Frankie, no matter what Jack said, but Scott could at least sort of keep up. More importantly, he was crazy about her. More than that, Mac didn't need.

Mac stepped out on the small balcony and took a deep breath. The familiar smells of a city hung in the air, but instead of being still and thick they floated on the breeze coming in from the water. Mac crossed his arms and shivered. He went back inside and slid into his hoodie. He'd forgotten how cold the summers were here, especially after the heat of LA. Mac yawned. What the hell was he going to do for the next two weeks? He'd come out early to help Frankie and offer what support he could. It ended up being a good thing. The gothic church, which looked like it belonged in a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, had an accident and all the power and water was dead, and there was no way for the city to have it fixed in time. So Mac worked his mojo, as Frankie called it, and everything else went off without a hitch.

Mac yawned again and looked at his watch. He was exhausted and the falling night made him want to turn in for the night, but his system was three hours ahead and thought it was dinner time. Mac sat on the edge of the bed and turned on the TV. He'd just finished his third run through the channels when his phone rang. Glad for the distraction, Mac turned off the TV and snatched up his phone. He frowned not recognizing the number.

"Hello?" Mac asked.

"MacGyver?" The voice was a deep baritone. Mac closed his eyes.

"Percy? How'd you get this number." Mac felt a heaviness in his heart and more than a little fear. They weren't friends exactly; Mac wasn't sure how he could describe his relationship with Percy. Mac owed Percy for his life, and more, but it wasn't like the friendship Mac had with Jack. He always knew one day Percy would collect on his favor with interest.

"Yeah, I crashed the wedding after party. I had ta man; I need to see you now."

"Ok, where are you?" A loud pounding at the door had Mac shaking his head. He hung up and opened the door. To look at Percy, the first thing you'd think of is a gang banger who did a lot of time in prison. He had the tattoos, even tears each one indicating a murder he'd done. Percy was not an angel sometimes not even a decent human being. Most wouldn't even think he was worth a second glance. Mac knew better. He waved the man in. Mac smirked. The man wore a neat blue pin-stripped suit. Percy had a smile that jumped across the room leaving a sense of happiness in its wake. If his eyes weren't hard black marbles, you would miss how dangerous the man was.

Mac gave him a quick bro hug. Percy studied him a long minute.

"Damn, you ain' gained no weight in all dese years?" Mac rolled his eyes. Percy loved to use lousy diction to hide his nimble mind. Percy laughed.

"What's with the suit?" Mac asked. Percy grinned and made a show of tightening the knot and standing up straighter.

"My last dime I got a law degree, I'm helping others now," Percy said it with exaggerated seriousness. Mac sighed and crossed his arms.

"Ok, what's going on?"

"Maaaac? A guy can't look up a friend…"

"Percy?"

"Fine. I need your help." Mac studied the older man's face. He was surprised to see genuine fear in the lines of his face. Mac waved at the recliner and sat on the bed. Percy sat down and ran his hands through his scrub of hair. Mac waited curiously. This was not the same Percy he had lived with for a month.

"How can I help, buddy?" Mac asked leaning forward. Percy mirrored his stance and let out a deep breath.

"I met a girl." Mac raised an eyebrow. When he'd known Percy women were "his bitches," "I know what you're thinking. How could it happen to me? I don't know man, I saw Imani, and my heart was hooked, and she reeled it in like a snapper." Percy was silent a long time, his eyes shining with the threat of tears.

"What went wrong?" Percy looked up and for a second Mac saw the arrogant rage that drove the man. Percy blinked, and it was gone.

"I did, as usual. I was big into spice then...I tell ya, I shoulda died so many times. I...Oh, Mac, I was such an asshole. I hit her; I wish to God I didn't but I did. She threw my ass out and I deserved it." Mac waited offering neither support or condemnation. He was not surprised by Percy's confession.

"But I'm nothing if not the king of stupid. I let her go because I had places to go, things to do...hell to raise. Only this time I got burnt, brother. I burned down my whole world."

"Stop with the drama." Mac chided. Percy nodded.

"You remember the 7s?"

"How could I not?" Mac said wryly. He stood up and began to pace.

"Touche. Anyway, me Neil and Lance built them into something good. Something national, but they got too big." Mac raised an eyebrow and turned to the man.

"Too big for you?"

"I know, I know. I am full of the entrepreneur spirit." Mac rolled his eyes and itched his chin. Percy was always reaching out to the next level the next big thing, even if it was more dangerous or illegal. Mac never knew what it was Percy wanted. As leader of the 7s, he had all the money and power a gangster could wish for. Even though they only controlled six city blocks, they ruled those city blocks like lords over their fifedoms.

"But my brothers went along with this out of state dude. This guy wanted to unseat the Irish Mob." Mac's eyes widened. The Irish Mob was as much a part of Boston as the Harbor.

"Who was he?"

"He was a Doctor in prison...uh Jason Lubeman. This guy has iron in his veins, no lie. He about made me shit myself. To him, death is like lint on his shoulder." Mac frowned. He never imagined Percy being afraid. Knowing some of what the older man had done over his years, it was some serious shit if it scared him.

"The 7s started disappearing, not being killed, just gone. We all scattered leaving Boston behind. If the doc and the Irish wanted to fight, we wanted out of the middle. I stayed low with a cousin in Chicago. Then I heard Lance and Neil went back to bring the 7s back and kill this dude. They disappeared." Mac sat down again and studied the man carefully. He could see the grooves a hard life had carved into his flesh.

"It was a wake up for me. Usually, I'd go and kill this son of a bitch for fucking with me and mine, but I was majorly outgunned. This guy didn't have power on the streets, but the city and government bent and kissed this guys ass. He was on a billion committees for hundreds of organizations. I have no idea what he wanted with taking over the street, man. Even the Irish left him alone.

About then I heard Imani had a child, Heaven. Isn't that just about the prettiest name you ever heard?" Mac smiled and nodded. Percy stared at his feet and wiped tears that started down his cheek, "I had a kid. I brought a life into this world. I was going to get right for that little girl. I reached the edge of the cliff and knew that I had to do something to redeem my life. I had to be better so I could be in Heaven's life. I got out, took the bar, stayed clean and gave up the thug life." Mac smiled at pride in Percy's voice.

"Finally, I got it ya know? Like you told me all those years ago-although you weren't even old enough to shave yet." Mac laughed and pushed his blond hair back, "I'm on the right path, Mac. I'm helping people. I have a house. I was just about to try to meet with Imani, but...Heaven was taken." Percy squinted his eyes shut and he shook with repressed sobs, "That son of a bitch has my baby, Mac." Mac stood and crouched beside Percy putting a hand on the man's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, pal. Tell me what exactly happened."

"I had to get it from a friend who looks after Imani for me. She said Imani woke up went in Heaven's room and this was on her bed." Percy held out his phone. Mac studied the picture. It showed a doll with her face carved away covered in blood. Mac frowned. There was no note or marking near or on the toy.

"How do you know this is Lubeman?"

"Mac, I have a million dollars on my head." Mac's eyes widened. Percy shook his head,"I heard that one of my brilliant brothers had stolen something from this psycho. I guess he didn't get what he wanted from them. Nobody found me, so he went after my girl. I want his head!" Percy jumped to his feet. Mac could almost feel the furnace of fury emanating from the man.

"Have you talked to Imani?"

"Right, she went to the feds. Who do you think is their first suspect?" Mac nodded and pursed his lips.

"Ok, I'll go see Imani and check a few things out around town. We'll get her back, I promise." Mac's blue eyes met Percy's with a solid resolve. Percy smiled and put a hand on Mac's shoulder.

"I knew I did the right thing saving your life." Mac rolled his eyes but didn't disagree.

Mac sank back against the pillows he leaned against in bed. His eyes were heavy and he squirmed with pain. The Phoenix team and detective Warren stood circling the bed. Mac rubbed his head and moaned. It was hot, too closed in; he felt like he was suffocating.

The team had reconvened when Cage and Bozer returned. They looped in Mac and he reluctantly began his story. Mac closed his eyes moaning and arching his back. In addition to the constant agony from his lower spine, ribs, and bruises He'd started having muscle spasms in his back and legs. Mac felt sweat drip down his face and his breathing came in faster. Mac's eyes began to trawl the room looking for an escape. The others were talking, Mac barely noticed. He rolled over and tried to stand. Mac cried out falling as if his back snapped in half.

"What the hell!" Jack blurted as his arms caught Mac under his armpits and lifted him back to sitting on the bed. 

"I have to get out of here...I have…." Mac felt as if his body was crawling with the need to run, to escape. Jack looked up at the others. They shared a worried glance and filed out of the room. When they were alone, Jack crouched in front of Mac. Mac leaned back trying to find a position that hurt less without success. The blonde looked into Jack's eyes with fear and pain, "Jack I have to get out of here…"

"Talk to me, brother. What's going on?" Mac tried to catch his breath but he felt like a bottle cap screwed from a broken bottle.

"Jack…" Mac gasped grabbing onto the older man's shirt. Jack frowned.

"Ok, kiddo. First let's get your pain under control, OK?" Mac leaned forward his head buried in Jack's chest. Mac nodded. Wincing in sympathy, Jack maneuvered Mac to the center of the bed. Mac's eyes became plates. If he could have taken in enough air, he would have screamed. Tears streamed down Mac's face as his muscles spasmed in the new position. Jack sat on the side of the kid's bed and gently began to rub Mac's forearm, "I know you're hurting, brother. Just breathe. You're ok; we're all ok." Jack was shocked when Mac looked away and started crying. Mac covered his eyes with his arm. Jack gently pulled it down.

"Talk to me, kiddo. What's wrong?" Mac looked at him distraught.

"We aren't all ok, Percy is dead and it's all my fault."


	6. Chapter 6

Bozer followed the others to the living room his mind whirling. Who could this Percy be that Mac owes him so much? 

"Bozer?" Boze followed the voice to Maggie Blue who stood to wait for him. He felt his skin crawl just a little. With her raggedy hair, skin almost empty of color and dark crevasses for eyes she looked like she was enthralled by a vampire.

"Yeah?"

"Could I borrow your phone" Bozer narrowed his eyes. She shot

him a smile with slightly yellowed teeth,"I haven't been able to use a phone for longer than three minutes in almost five years. I want to see if I can find my family." Bozer frowned. Maggie laughed and pulled a clump of black hair away from her face. Bozer couldn't miss the glitter of tears building in her eyes.

"What happened to your family?"

"They dropped me off then vanished. They took my…" Maggie turned away biting her lip. She swallowed then turned back clearing her throat, "I guess they figure if you lose too many marbles you are a thing. I...I lost everything, but I want to get some of it back." Bozer believed the woman but felt she was holding something back, something that would bite them in the ass later.

"Bozer! Do you need an engraved invitation?" Matty yelled from the living room. Bozer shook his head. He looked at Maggie.

"Look, we can talk about this later, ok?" She nodded and watched as Bozer joined the others in the living room. Maggie wiped away tears and slid toward Mac's side. She could feel the suspicion of the others; their frightened stared raked her skin continuously. She didn't know if it was how she got into their fold or because she was crazy. Maggie sighed. Mac was the only one who never judged her, but he'd seen what living in a mental institution was like first hand.

Maggie paused at the door watching Mac sleep and was sure her heart would break. He sported bruises or bandages from head to toe. She supposed he looked good for getting tagged by a car zooming down a freeway but compared to the sure MacGyver who got her out of that hellhole, the man in the bed looked like a broken doll.

Maggie turned feeling eyes watching her. She smiled at Macaroni's bro-nanny. Jack reminded her of a lion or tiger crouched in the grass, tail swishing, licking its lip as a herd of antelope passed in front of him. Maggie offered a smile. Jack turned away after a long minute of studying her. Maggie slipped into Mac's room. Mac's breathing didn't sound right; his chest didn't move as smoothly as usual. Maggie sat on the edge of his bed and studied his face. He looked so young and old at the same time; he fascinated him. Maggie sighed. Maybe if they'd met before all hell had broken loose in her life...who knows? She brushed his bangs out of his face.

Maggie took in the room. Beside the bed, on a table, she saw a box of paperclips. Maggie smiled remembering the flabbergasted look Mac gave her when he'd found out Cascade only allowed plastic paperclips. Maggie paused and glanced at the door. Beside the paperclips, a cell phone was charging. Maggie licked her lips and grabbed it. She started texting. She knew the others would be mad, but she had to find Ambril.

"Guys, I found a lot of hinky stuff about this mental clinic," Riley said.

"I thought you said their files weren't online." Cage asked sipping a cup of tea and wincing. American's liked their tea so weak!

"They aren't so I looked indirectly-trucking companies' manifests of deliveries, utilities that kind of stuff. They have a lot of refrigerations trucks that stop there."

"Refrigeration?" Jack asked crossing his arms, "like milk or food?"

"I don't know it's a privately contracted company here in LA-Dice and Splice Meats."

"That's a name from a horror show," Bozer mumbled. The others silently agreed.

"If it's food, they are bringing enough there to feed all of Wembley stadium. A truck delivers or picks up once a day or sometimes two or three times a day."

"Are there any mob ties?" Lee Warren asked with a frown. The others looked at him surprised. He itched his wild mane of sparse hair, "Every time I've seen someone use that much refrigeration there were usually dead bodies involved."

"You are a homicide detective." Cage pointed out. Lee shrugged.

"The point still stands."

"I can't find any ties to known gangsters or investigations," Riley said after a long minute.

"Try interstate travel," Matty suggested. Lee shot her a quick smile that made Matty almost blush. The other team mate's shared a surprised look. They hid it before Matty noticed.

"Oh wow, bingo." Riley said, "These guys travel all over the states, one of their biggest hubs…"

"Let me guess, Boston?" Jack said straightening with the need to move, to hit back.

"Yep, in fact, there were deliveries to the same neighborhood the day Heaven went missing, and another one the day Mac dropped off the grid."

"How much do you want to bet they took the girl the came back for her dad," Bozer said.

"And Mac followed them to Cascade," Jack said nodding. Things were beginning to click together.

"Then what?" Lee asked, "What is going on in that clinic?" Matty stood up and smiled.

"I guess it's time for us to go find out. Our priority is finding the girl."

"Alright, a raid!" Jack grinned. His grin vanished as he looked over at Mac's room. He sighed and nodded, "I'll stay here to keep an eye on Mac...and Maggie." Riley looked up at the change of tone.

"You don't trust her?"

"I won't trust anybody in this mess until everything is cleared up."

An hour later, Jack watched the rest of the team drive away in TAC gear-even Maggie. Jack smiled it'd been a long time since he'd seen Maggie in combat. He shook his head remembering that time in Cambodia when she rescued him from the hooker with the trained boa constrictor...Jack's memory was snipped short at a cry from Mac's room.

"Jack!" Mac yelled. Jack ran to the room. Maggie stood looking down at a thrashing Mac her face confused and worried. She gave Jack a pleading look.

"I didn't do it!"

"It's ok; it's just a nightmare. Could you give us a minute?" Maggie nodded and went to the living room. Jack breathed out and took in Mac's pain. He sat beside the bed and took his partner's hand, "C'mon, Mac, it's ok…" He repeated the familiar mantra as he gently rubbed his hand up and down Mac's forearm.

Mac fought the straps that fastened him to a thin metal medical table. The room smelled like a morgue with the peculiar mix of dead flesh and chemicals. A doctor in a suit and nurses looked down at him. Then lightning, blinding explosions of pain and cramps in every muscle. Mac couldn't scream, his lungs spasmed shut. Then he was in a car screeching a thousand miles weaving suicidally through fast traffic. Percy looked over at him and grinned.

"You are alive! I wasn't sure...We have to get to…." Mac stared at Percy's face morphed into a mask of agony; Mac blinked spray painted with a thick layer of blood. The car swerved bounced against a blue truck then smashed into the guardrail. Mac felt his body roll in a meat grinder as the rental tipped end over end until it landed upside down in water. Mac hung upside down watching the light blue-green water darken as if someone was pulling down a shade. Beside him, Percy's dead body hung dripping blood from a hole in the center of his chest onto the roof. It was dizzying. Mac felt his eyes slump. He just needed a minute…

Then he was on a beach with two hippies staring down at him. Mac blinked up at them before coughing and crying out. He hurt everywhere and everything was a sizzling blur. Their voices buzzed in and out of coherence. Mac told them no to hospital. They two men glanced at each other.

"On the run, bro? We're down with that. We got something to help you, man." Everything was a kaleidoscope after that involving a van, disco ball (Mac thought) and a lot of bongs until Mac found himself walking lost on the freeway. Then there were lights, pain and…

Mac's eyes snapped open, and he began to pant in air taking in the room around him. He didn't relax until he felt a familiar touch on his arm. He glanced at Jack and closed his eyes taking a deep breath.

"There you are. You ok, kiddo?" Jack asked. Mac raised an eyebrow. Jack laughed, a sound of relief, "Ok, stupid question. Had to make sure." Mac surprised Jack by telling him what he was dreaming before Jack could get out a word. Jack sat quietly taking in the story.

Jack studied Mac as he talked. Mac spoke fast like he did when he was excited or terrified. His body was tight, and his eyes kept roving the room. Jack absently rubbed Mac's shoulder, but even this familiar gesture didn't relieve the kid's anxiety.

"...then I went somewhere and didn't know where I was, then I got to a road and all these cars and Percy's dead and…"

"Ok, OK. Stop, bud. Stop." Jack leaned over forcing Mac's eyes to meet his as the older man held Mac's. Mac looked at him startled, panting with anxiety, "Breathe, dude." Mac nodded closed his eyes and forced himself to take a few slow breaths. Jack nodded and took one of his own, "What's going on?" Jack asked. Mac opened his mouth then shut it again. Mac worked at a long sliver of glass in his forehead. Jack gently caught Mac's hand and waited.

"I...I don't know; I guess that's what gets me...I can't help Percy, " Mac swallowed his voice sounding as if his mouth was full of marbles. Jack waited silently. Mac looked down. Jack could tell he was fighting the tears threatening to escape.

"You think you know something about Heaven?" Mac tried to push Jack off his bed and sit up. Mac cried out and fell back feeling as if a chainsaw ground its way through his back.

"Jack, we have to find her…"

"I know, bud. But first…."

"JACK!" Jack spun at Maggie's scream. He took a step toward the door then fell flat as bullets chewed into the room around them.


	7. Chapter 7

"Jack!" Mac couldn't hear his own yell over the thunder of guns. He cried out as he pushed himself off the bed. The room hung thick with a cloud of plaster and shards of wood and glass showered the floor. Mac rolled onto his side and fought to breathe.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jack hissed in his ear. Mac looked up and grinned. Jack shook his head which caused a layer of debris to fly off his short hair. He helped Mac roll onto his back. Mac sucked in a deep breathe. Jack eyed him a long second to make sure he was at least with it enough to keep breathing. Mac closed his eyes in relief as the pain dropped down to manageable. Jack turned and pulled himself to the door way. He frowned.

Four guys in full TAC gear were almost lazily shooting into the house. Maggie was hunched behind a chair that was about to be saw dust.

"Maggie!" She looked up in relief at Jack. He offered her a smile." When I start shooting hustle your ass over here, ok?" She nodded. Jack moved back half a step then leaned out shooting through the broken front windows. Maggie let out a howl of fear as she leapt into the bedroom accidently rolling on top of Mac. Mac yelled.

"Sorry, sorry." Maggie whispered moving him until he could breathe better. He was pale and sweating. His breathing was fast and his blue eyes were unfocused, "You don't look so good, Macaroni?"

Jack didn't know if Mac answered or not. He tagged one of the shooters in the shoulder and scored a bulls eye on the other. He ducked back behind the wall wincing as splinters flew into his face.

"How the hell did these guys find us?" Jack roared. He was almost out of ammo. He suspected their friends had brougt plenty.

"I think that's on me." Jack blinked not sure he heard right. He studied Maggie.

"Come again?"

"I...uh...made a call...texted actually…"

"Son of a bitch!" Jack roared. There was a slowing of the shower of lead.

"She had a reason…" Mac grimaced and breathed fast as he pulled himself to sitting. One hand clutched at his side. Jack was about to yell at him when he saw movement to his right. He turned in time to see three burly bad guys sprinting toward him.

"Shit!" Jack emptied his Baretta. The first one fell. Jack dropped his pistol and drew his Kbar from its boot sheath. The onslaught from the front of the house had slowed which meant they were trapped in a closing pincher. Jack smiled feeling his inner brawler wake up. Time to show these pukes who they were fighting. He crossed to the other side of the door and waited. As soon as he heard the tread of rubber soled boots, Jack lashed out fast as a rattler his knife scored the man's throat. Even though he was dead, the man's body kept running four steps before crumpling to the floor.

Jack grabbed the man by the hair and pulled his body to its knees as he yanked the man's fallen rifle and awkwardly fired one handed at the last dude. Jack grimaced as bullets thudded into his flesh shield. He could feel bits of flesh and blood spray across his shirt and jeans. As soon at the last guy fell, Jack went to his back and kicked away the corpse. He rolled onto his belly and kept firing. Two of the goons from the front screamed and fell. Jack rose to his knees and rolled back into the bed room as bullets tracked him chewing the floor to shreds less than an inch from his hurtling form.

Jack landed neatly on his knees and aimed at the door. He could see Maggie helping Mac do something behind him.

"You doing something brilliant, brother?" Mac only offered a painful wheeze. Jack shook his head and leaned out enough to shoot a long burst to keep the attackers back. He ducked back as they returned fire.

"Mac says to throw this." Maggie said at his elbow. Jack glanced over and glanced at Mac with a raised eyebrow. Mac offered half a grin and shrugged. He held a foam square cut from the mattress tied to the small lamp missing its shade with a broken lightbulb fillament exposed. Jack coughed. It started burning and spitting out a black wreath of smoke. Jack tossed it in the general direction of the invaders.

In seconds, the house was filled with a thick chemical black pall. Jack coughed as he reached down yanked Mac to his feet and dragged him out of the bedroom. Maggie ran on their heels. Anything that moved in front of him, Jack shot. They'd just cleared the front door when Jack felt something kick him hard in the side. Damn. Jack took advantage of the brief painless honeymoon shock gave him and managed to haul Mac halfway across the lawn before his knees gave out.

Jack cried out as he fell face first into the thick grass. He desperately looked over at Mac. Unfortunately Mac had passed out awhile ago. Shit. Jack leaned over to Maggie and grabbed her by the front. Her dark eyes were wild. Jack groaned as he fished his keys out of his pocket and shoved them into Maggie's hand. He didn't notice the stain of blood dripping from the keychain.

"Maggie, go, tell the others…" Jack was dimly aware of black spots creeping in, the pain was beginning to hit. She stared at the keys a long minute, "GO, GOD DAMN IT!" Maggie nodded and dashed for the SUV. Jack spun he kicked at the first set of legs that came near him. He was rewarded with a butt stock to his side. Jack arched back fighting to take in air. The figures above him became shaky inky smears that spread and covered everything.

M


	8. Chapter 8

Awareness returned in increments. Jack moaned. His skin was damp and cold. The air was unmoving and heavy. The silence around him felt stale and smelled of mold and medical chemicals. A basement of some sort, he guessed. Jack risked a deep breath and curled forward at the bloody cramping in his side. His body cramped as if it was caught in a vice. He moved to touch his side and realized his hands were bound behind his back. Bare skin on his arm and shoulder rubbed against rough damp stone. They had removed his T-shirt. He could feel a tight bandage around his middle. Enough bitching, Jack chided himself. He forced his eyes open. His heart thudded in alarm. Everything was black. He was blind. A startled cry escaped his lips.

"Jack?" Jack let out a slightly relieved breath.

"Mac? You ok?" Mac didn't sound ok. Jack could hear him breathing from across the room

"Been better...you 'k?" Jack didn't like how Mac had to pause to catch his breath between words. Jack wasn't surprised to find his feet were bound. He groaned as he sat, "Jack?" Mac's voice was stronger with alarm.

"I'm ok, kiddo. Do you know where we are?" Jack's alarm skyrocketed when there was no response. Jack inched his way toward the wheezing gasps of his partner. Jack winced as skin scraped off his bare arms with every movement. He sighed in relief when his knee hit a solid warm body. Jack moved closer until he was beside Mac. He nudged the kid. Mac sucked in a breath.

"Jack?" Mac sounded confused and weak.

"Yeah, dude. How bad?" Mac paused. Jack could tell he was

gathering his strength or taking awhile to process Jack's words. Neither was a pleasing scenario.

" 'm 'k."

"Yeah, you sound it." Jack didn't hold back the sarcasm.

"Rough ride." Mac grumbled. Jack felt Mac's body move.

"Mac?" Mac moaned. Jack could feel the younger man wiggle his way to sitting, "Mac…" Jack began. He broke off as cold shaking hands moved along his closest arm. Jack's eyes widened, "You're not tied up?" He didn't like the speed or loudness of Mac's breathing.

"No...point." Mac managed. Jack felt his hair stand on end. Mac moved closer. Jack didn't like the unsteady jerky movement of Mac's body, especially knowing he wasn't bound. He felt Mac's hands work at his bindings. The way they cut into his wrists, Jack thought they were plastic cuffs. Jack felt a sawing motion then with a snap his hands were free. Mac slumped beside him huffing. Jack rubbed his wrists and pumped his hand into fists getting circulation back.

He turned and reached out to Mac. The kid laid on his side. Jack frowned. Mac was still in a hospital gown but it was torn and wet with the familiar warm stickiness of blood. Jack worked his way down Mac's legs. Mac cried out as Jack reached his ankles. Jack hissed in alarm.

"They're…"

"B...roken." Mac agreed. Both ankles were swollen twice their size. The right one was worse. Jack could feel knobs of bone poking out where they didn't belong. Not only had Mac had his ankles broken but most of the bones in both feet.

"Talk to me, what happened?" Jack demanded continuing his assessment. Mac's back was hot to the touch and swollen. Jack could feel lumps and felt more blood when he got to Mac's head. He could feel his partner shivering, "Mac? C'mon man, stay with me." Mac coughed and began in a quiet voice.

 _Mac woke up with a start. Straps tied him to a stretcher. He looked around him wildly and let out a breath of relief. Jack laid beside him strapped to another stretcher. A medic sat between them and Mac saw him sewing up a wound on Jack's side. Mac couldn't see the wound from his angle but he was distressed to see how much blood flowed from the stretcher to plop in drops on the floor._

 _Mac leaned his head forward and frowned. They weren't in an ambulance. It was a plain white van. Mac felt his stomach drop. He eyed the medic, his weary brain affixing the hair and shape to memory._

 _"Lubeman." Mac growled. The psychiatrist turned and smiled._

 _"You're awake good. I have some questions for you." Mac sat back trying to get his heart and breathing under control. The last time the man had questions he'd punctuated each one with a painful jolt of electricity. Mac's gut clenched as he felt broken memories of straps pinning him to a metal table, crackle of electricity then agony...his scrambled brain trying to process an overflow of sensation into some sort of sanity. Mac swallowed. Lubeman finished sewing Jack's side then leaned the Delta forward to wrap gauze around his chest. Mac didn't see any other injury. Lubeman was kind, almost gentle as he laid Jack back. That disappeared when he turned to face Mac. The man snapped his bloody surgical gloves off his hands then leaned forward studying Mac with a detached fascination. Mac closed his eyes bracing himself._

 _"Now, I don't want to waste time or effort to hurt you again, Mac. But I will and this time there's no Percy to burst in to save you. He's dead." Mac glared at the man but remained silent. Lubeman let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. He glanced over at Jack. He reached over and pressed into Jack's side hard. The unconscious man let out a soft moan and his body tried to shy away from the pain, but there was no way for him to move. Lubeman turned to watch Mac's reaction._

 _Mac had been in enough of these situations to know what Lubeman was doing. Although his heart thudded and his gut twisted hating how casually the psychiatrist hurt his brother, Mac forced himself to show no reaction. If he did, Jack would be used as leverage and face agonizing torture. Lubemen studied Mac's face then nodded._

 _"Interesting. I thought he was a friend?" Lubeman moved his hand. Mac fought the urge to let out a relieved breath. He shrugged._

 _"He's just one of the cops protecting me." Mac hoped the crazy doctor wouldn't hear the slight warble in his voice. If he did, he gave no sign._

 _"How lucky for him, and unlucky for you." Lubeman said with a small smile. He fiddled with the edge of Mac's hospital gown pulling it down. Mac closed his eyes feeling his skin creep at the idea of this murderer touching him._

 _"Hey, Doc, we're five out." A voice said through a small window in the steel between the front and rear of the van. Lubeman nodded and bent to pull something from under Mac's cart. Mac's eyes widened and he tried to scoot away from the syringe in Lubeman's hand._

 _"No need to be afraid, Mac. I'm a healer. I won't hurt you, unless necessary." Before Mac could say a word, the doctor tilted his head and stabbed him in the neck. Mac felt like a thick layer of gauze was slowly wrapped around his head until everything was gone._

 _The next thing Mac knew was a stone chamber. He was manacled spread eagled on a metal table. Mac felt his heart pound as soon as he recognized where he was. He was in a morgue, an old one. Mac took in the wall of rusted knives, pulleys and chains hanging from the ceiling and the steel tables and sinks. He frowned. There was no refrigeration unit and the only light was a single light bulb hanging over him in a steel caged fixture._

 _There were no windows and the walls were slick with moisture, moss and mold. Mac gagged. His head hurt, but his back was a fiery blaze of torment. Mac began to shiver. The metal was cold against his naked back. At least they let him keep the hospital gown._

 _Mac could feel nibbles of panic creep up his spine at the sound of boots outside the door. He heard rough voices then the door opened. Mac's heart spasmed as his body jumped in surprise. Two bald goons entered holding some sort of metal contraptions Mac couldn't quite identify. They set this on a counter beside the double sink. Lubeman strolled in holding a riding crop. Marvellous. Lubeman pulled off his jacket and slowly rolled up his sleeves. Mac was surprised at the bulk of the man's muscles. Lubeman moved closer and slowly ran the riding crop along Mac's body. Mac couldn't hide the flinch of fear. Lubeman sighed._

 _"I don't enjoy this, you know. All I ever wanted to do was help people." Mac snorted. Without a change of expression, Lubeman lashed out like a viper. Mac cried out at the stinging pain flaming across his abdomen, "Very well, MacGyver. I guess it's the hard way." No matter what he said, Mac saw the familiar glint of a sadist in the man's cold eyes. Didn't like this? Bullshit. Mac arched his back as his belly received another stich of fire._

 _"Do I have your attention? I need to know where Percy hid it." Mac blinked at Lubeman in genuine confusion. Before Lubeman brought the horse whip up to strike again, Mac rasped,_

 _"What? What do you want?" Lubeman itched his nose and looked over at the two bald goons._

 _"Why do they always play dumb?" The two men had identical blank stares and gave identical shrugs. Lubeman turned to Mac. Mac could see anger flaming in the man's face._

 _"The ledgers?" Mac blinked up at the psycho psychiatrist. Lubeman snarled and let loose a flurry of five sharp stripes. Mac's back arched. Tears ran down his face and he bit his lip stubbornly refusing to let out a scream. He sank back panting. His world was fuzzing on the edges. "Percy made a copy of our whole operation, we took his brat, but he didn't care about her enough. Then you came, and managed to run away. Percy is dead. Now all I have is you?" Lubeman's voice echoed around Mac's spinning head, "I will have to kill you, I suppose but it can be quick like Percy or a very, very long painful process. Mac opened his mouth to say something, but he forgot the words by the time he managed to get his tongue to move on command. Lubeman sighed and nodded to the two bald men. He walked away muttering about "just try to help someone and look what you get" or something to that effect. Mac closed his eyes taking deep breaths. He tried to regroup and prepare for the next torture, but the convulsion of pain shaking his body killed any ability to string syllables into words._

 _Everything went gray for a time. A sharp slap of pain roused Mac with a yell of surprise. Lubeman was back. Mac looked down and gasped. His feet were encased in metal vises.  
"No, don't please. I don't know anything." Mac pleaded. Lubeman studied his face then pushed a button on a control. The cold metal plates on either side of both of his feet began to grind. Mac panted pulling at his manacles tipping into panic. The vises stopped. Mac let out a brief breath of relief. Sweat beaded and dripped down his face. His torso was criss-crossed with slices in skin that burned. Everything else wobbled and tilted around him. He heard the mumbled garble of Lubeman speaking, the grind of the vices then the snap of bone. Mac leaned his head back, his neck taut, and screamed unable to stop his body from thrashing against the cold metal._

"I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch six times from hell! God damned fucking…" Jack's yell echoed loudly in the small black space. Jack cut off his venting in midstream feeling Mac's body tighten with fear. He took a steadying breath and reached out till he found Mac's hand. Mac squeezed enough to make Jack wince. He was glad Mac couldn't see his face; Jack didn't think the kid was completely with it yet. Jack didn't like the amount of shaking he felt from his partner. Jack slid his hand until he found Mac's face. He could feel the wetness. He thought it was sweat until he took in the rhythm of Mac's shaking and panting.

"Aw, kid. C'mere." As gently as he could. Jack lifted Mac and tilted him against his chest. Mac groaned. Jack could feel his body tense with fear and pain. Jack pulled him closer and tucked the kid's head under his chin. Jack slowly rocked and rubbed his hand across Mac's bare back. Mac curled in closer. Jack could feel his brother's hand wring the older man's arm. If he'd had a shirt on, Jack knew Mac would be holding onto it for dear life. Jack took a deep breath.

"It's ok, kiddo. We're gonna get outta here. Just catch your breath a minute ok?" He felt Mac's damp head nod even as Mac gave into silent tears. Yep, gonna kill him a gazillion times, each one worse than the last. 


	9. Chapter 9

"Ok, we're in position." Cage looked back at Riley who nodded. The younger woman almost quaked with tension. Cage wasn't sure if it was fear, determination or a combination of both.

"Acknowledged. We're entering now." Cage nodded at Riley who worked the lock. Cage watched the environment. She wrinkled her nose. The back door of the mental health unit stank of stale beer, vomit and urine. Trash lined the narrow path to the door. Graffiti scrolled across the bare wall. It was a remarkable difference from the well manicured lawn at the front of the building. Cage took this as an indication of exactly how much of a fraud this clinic truly was. Riley glanced at Cage then stepped back as Cage stepped inside her Glock 30S leading the way.

The door led to the center of a sprawling dark hallway. Lit by the early evening light through clouded windows, the hall was a muted orange. It felt abandoned; the silence was creepy. Cage scanned both directions before stepping aside and letting in Riley. To their left the hallway ended in a room with long tables and boxes of toys, games and clothes. Across from them was a door marked laundry. Cage tilted her head to the right. Riley nodded.

Their footsteps sounded like gunshots in the empty hallway. Six open doors faced each other down the entire corridor. Keeping close to the wall, the two women slowly made their way toward the double glass doors at the end. At the first door, Cage leaned forward peering into the room across the hall. She frowned and glanced back at Riley who nodded.

It had been a treatment room but the equipment was scattered broken across the floor. Cage braced herself then spun into the room beside her. She cleared it before taking in details. Two silver metal tables ran lengthwise across the room. All manner of electrical gear hung around them. Cage grimaced.

"Oh God," Riley whispered putting her forearm over her mouth and nose. On both tables strapped into poses of eternal agony were two burnt bodies. Their faces twisted into eternal screams; they were little more than blackened skeletons. Riley shook her head and backed out. Cage had been on too many battlefields to be affected by the smell of charred human meat. She followed Riley and led the way down the rest of the hallway. The rest of the rooms held similar gruesom corpses.

"Patients?" Riley asked. Cage gave her a sour look.

"Probably. I think they're covering their tracks."

Cage peered through the glass doors. They opened into a small overgrown courtyard. At one time it must have been beautiful. While wilted and unkept, flowers and plants bravely showed their bright colors as they drooped waiting to die. In the center of four brick paths, a statue of an angel stood with broken hands raised over her head holding the fractured remains of a bird bath bowl. The statue had some of the white it once shimmered with, but green mold and moss looped around her body like funeral garlands.

That wasn't what drew Cage's attention. Riley looked at the older woman puzzled. Cage gazed out the window, her blue eyes roving, searching for something she knew she'd find.

"What?" Riley whispered. Both women jumped at the echo made by the soft words.  
"It's wired with explosives." Cage hissed back.

"What? How can you tell?" Cage pointed. It took Riley a minute to see the gossamer shimmer of a thin wires criss-crossing the small square like a cat's cradle made of string. Anyone stepping into the courtyard would run into one of the trip lines. Riley followed the wires to thick round packages affixed to every door leading into the small area. Riley straightened.

"I guess we go out the way we came in then." She said. Cage caught her arm.

"We can't, look." Riley followed her gaze to the door to their left. In the small area between two glass double doors two young girls were tied up and in the center of a web of thin wire filaments. Both wore a vest. Riley couldn't make out the numbers, but the red blinking light on their vest could only be a timer.

"Shit." She swore, "Matty, we have a problem." Neither Cage or Riley had really been paying attention to the coms focused on their own trip down the hall. They looked at each other startled as they heard the familiar sounds of hand to hand fighting. They jumped at the bark of two guns firing, "Matty? Matty!" Riley called, her heart thumping hard.

"Bit busy...right now." Matty gritted through the coms. Riley met Cage's eyes. Cage bit her lip.

"Do you need help?" Cage asked. They heard Matty cussing and the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

"Bastard!" Matty growled. The two agents could hear their boss rasping in air, "Sitrep." Matty barked. Cage succinctly explained their situation.

"Shit! Where's blondy when you need him." Matty let out a deep breath, "Ok, is that the west wing?"

"No, the east." They could hear more shots and Matty huffing. She was obviously running.

"Figures, Ok. Lee and I will try to work our way over there, you guys figure out what to do about the web of doom."

"How?" Riley blurted. She heard Matty swear and more signs of fighting.

"Shit! I don't know, google it. Lee get your ass down here before it gets shot off...oh for pete's sake. Gotta go, deal with it." Cage and Riley shared a frustrated look.

"Any ideas?" Cage asked. Riley looked out at the shining wire spider's nest and shook her head.

M

Matty looked over at Lee as they pulled up to the parking lot in the front of the mental health clinic. They had dropped Riley off a block down the road. They stared at the building, both feeling uneasy.

"Bozer, do you have anything?" Bozer paced the sidewalk across the street. He wore earphones and held up a sign that said "Hugs and Love, not Guns and War." The sign hid a laser microphone and heat sensor array. Bozer nodded at a couple of cars that honked at him.

"I'm getting some funky readings, Matty."

"What kind of readings?" Cage asked.

"I'm not hearing any conversation, rustling of keys or stuff but I got 10 heat signatures. The weird thing is they are tiny balls floating in the air. Unless they're ghost orbs, I have no idea what they are."

"There battery packs for electronic surveillance shields." Matty growled.

"What does that mean?" Riley asked.

"It means Lubeman has some serious cash and connections." Cage said. Bozer turned and waved at a car load of teens who shot him thumbs up. He paused. A block down the street he saw a convoy of Slice o' Meat refrigeration trucks.

"Matty, something is going on. I got a bunch of refrigeration trucks bugging out."

"Shit." There was a long pause, Bozer could almost hear Matty's thinking, "Ok, Boze, follow them." Bozer's eyes went wide. He felt fear trickle through his veins.

"Are you sure you want me to…"

"Bozer, you are a full agent now, you can do this."

"We can back him up." Riley offered.

"No, we have to find out what the hell is going on. Bozer go, but only run surveillance understand me? DO NOT engage." Bozer took a deep breath and nodded.

"I got this." He jogged to his car, threw the equipment in the back and drove after the disappearing convoy.

Lee Warren looked over at Matty. She tried to keep a tough-as-nails facade, but he could see the worry in her eyes. He put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and looked at him, it was a grateful look not the hostile glare he expected.

"Let's do this." They paused beside the car to check their gear. Matty tied her long hair back in a ponytail. Matty pulled out a M4 Carbine, the smaller and lighter sister of the M16, checked the magazine. She loosened her Kahr pistol in its under shoulder leather harness and looked over at Lee. Lee sported a Remington 870 DM 12 gauge shotgun. He checked the boxy magazine filled with six rounds. He had a string of mags ready for reloading hanging from his TAC vest. Lee pulled at the neck of the kevlar vest. His Phoenix colleagues had lent him the largest size, but it was still a few inches too small. If they survived this, he promised to utilize the unused gym membership he'd been paying for over the last year and a half

"Ready?" Matty asked shaking her hair back. Lee racked the slide on the shotgun and grinned in answer. Matty smiled back. She held his gaze longer than was necessary. Lee's grin widened. Maybe there was something there.

"Absolutely, let's flush the turds." Matty led the way to the door. She peered into the lobby. She couldn't see anyone and the lights were off. Her heart pounded as she studied the lock carefully. No booby trap. Matty pulled out an electric lockpick and had the door open in seconds. She stood halfway in the door.

"We're in position." She heard Cage say.

"Acknowledged, we're entering now." Matty held the door. Lee followed her and watched their six as she moved through the inner glass entryway. The building was heavy with silence. Every move they made seemed to ring like a foghorn on a dark ocean. Matty paused and looked at Lee.

"You smell it too." He said, his mouth downturned. She nodded. Gasoline, and a lot of it.

"They're gonna torch the place." Matty murmured leading the way to the patient's hallway blocked by the double locked doors. Lee looked in the small window. The corridor had faint circles of light shining gray against a pervasive shadow that slithered toward them. Lee swallowed and pushed back his imagination. He nodded at Matty who opened the door. She looked at the electric lock and narrowed her eyes.

"Any ideas?" She asked. Lee gaped at her.

"What? You super sciency spies don't have a way to kill it?" Matty scowled.

"We do, but he's home sick from school." Lee went to raise his shotgun. Matty stopped him with a hand on his arm, "No, there are still bad guys hanging around, remember?" Lee felt his face flush. He canted the shotgun against his shoulder and waited. Matty turned and looked around the room. She paused and smiled. Matty crossed to the glass booth the desk clerk sat behind. She jimmied the lock and pulled out a flashlight from her utility belt.

Matty looked at Lee who nodded his shotgun pointed ready for action. Matty buzzed the door. Lee pulled it open as soon as it buzzed and held it an inch open. Matty turned to leave the front desk and stopped smiling. A ring of keys sat on the desk beside a fat purple purse. Matty scooped up the keys then paused. She opened the purse. It was full of flash drives. Matty frowned, closed it and slung it over her shoulder. Matty grunted and shrugged the weight until she was balanced. She hurried over to Lee Warren's side. Lee looked down and fought to hold in a laugh. His bushy eyebrows climbed into the unruly mop of gray hair.

"Nice purse." He whispered. Lee winced as he received the full power of the tiny woman's glare. He swallowed finally getting why Jack and Mac were afraid of her. She gestured to the door and raised an eyebrow. Lee cleared his throat and nodded chastised.

They crept into the hall, Lee's shotgun leading the way. Matty wrinkled her nose. The gasoline smell got stronger the closer they got to the far end of the unit- closer to Lubeman's office, Matty realized. Matty and Lee advanced back to back, clearing each room as they made their way step by taut step. The rooms were deserted. Each one sat made up as if it were a hotel waiting for guests.  
"I don't like this." Lee whispered.

"Uhh-huh." Matty murmured back. They both froze and slid into the darker shadows against the wall.

"Is this everything?" A muffled voice asked. Matty couldn't make out the reply. She and Lee crept down the hall. They paused listening. Moving black shadows strolled out of the nurse's station hauling boxes of files to the darker end of the hall. They were taking files to Lubeman's office.

"We have to get those records." Matty whispered. Lee nodded and levelled his shotgun. Matty raised the M4 to her shoulder and took lead. She paused waiting for a guy with a man bun to step away from the nurse's station. Matty scowled. Jack had described him perfectly. Matty knew she should take him into custody, but she thought of Mac and Jack's wounds and smiled like a lioness protecting her pride. Fuck it.

Matty drilled the man with a triple burst to the head. He dropped like a sack of shit. Matty jogged forward. Another man peeped out around the door. Lee blasted the top of his head off. Lee grinned.

"Sweet! Can I keep this after all this is over?" Matty sighed and shook her head. Boys and their toys. She eased around the door and nimbly stepped over the fallen corpses. No one else was in the nurse's station. It was picked clean. Papers were scattered on the floor. The cabinets were open and empty. All the computers were gone. Matty chuckled they had even taken the phone, copier and clock off the wall.

"Ok, let's…" Matty was interrupted by gunfire. She ducked behind the counter. Lee followed. The bullet proof glass above them chipped as bullets pinged off of it. Matty grimaced. There was no such thing as bulletproof glass, only bullet resistant. That meant they had a few shots to figure out what they were going to do but not many.

"Any ideas?" Both ducked as a long stream of bullets stitched the glass. Spiderwebs began to crease out from the circular impact points. Lee narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. Matty scowled at him. He had the same look Mac got when he was figuring out something and forgot there was someone in the same room he needed to explain it to. It pissed her off with Mac and it pissed her off now.

"What?" She hissed. Lee looked at her, his face more serious than she'd seen before.

"That gunfire's coming from the way we came in." Matty's mouth opened in surprise. How had she not noticed that?

"We're blocked in." Both saw a bright flare and smelled smoke as the room at the end of the hall was set ablaze.

"Shit, Matty we have a problem." Matty was dimly aware of Cage over the comm as the glass above them shattered sending slivers in all directions. Matty looked up to see two black clad figures aim guns at her. Matty didn't hesitate. She drilled the pair of them. She glanced over at Lee. He'd been pulled out the doorway and rolled on the ground with an opponent fighting for control of the shotgun.

"Matty?" Matty gasped as a heavy body slammed her to the ground. Matty rammed the butt of her M4 up. The man reared back and Matty shot him grunting as she narowly avoided being crushed. She wiggled out from under his torso and spun to see four guys leaping over the counter. Crap.

Matty grabbed the closest goon and pulled him off the counter by his hair adding her momentum to slam his head into the tile. She managed to duck a kick aimed at her head, and block a side swipe with a knife. The force of the blow threw he into the corner of the counter behind her. Matty let out a small yell of pain.

"Matty!"

"Bit...busy right now." Matty managed to rasp as she tried to break a strangle hold. She fell backward and tucked her knees in close. The man sprawled on top of her loosening his hold in surprise. Before his full weight landed on her, Matty kicked out hitting the man in the gut. The guy let out a loud whoosh. He drew back, trying to catch his breath. Matty bounced to her feet and followed him and smashed the butt of the M4 into his throat. He gurgled and sprawled dead across the tile. Matty spun facing the next guy. She could feel a stitch in her side. It had been a long time since she'd been in the field and her aching body reminded her there was a reason for that. Suck it up buttercup. She told herself wincing as her rifle was slapped out of her hand. Her fingers tingled and blood ran down her wrist. It could have been worse, she could have lost a finger. Arms like tree limbs grabbed her from behind, lifted her, then smashed her back to the ground. Black dots circled like buzzards. Matty gritted her teeth and shook them away. She didn't get where whe was without being a stubborn force of nature. She lashed at the blurry face hanging above her. The heel of her palm caught the man in the bridge of his nose. The man screamed and backed away. Matty coughed as she fought to stand. She glanced down the hall and cussed. She couldn't see anything through the thick cloud of gathering smoke.


	10. Chapter 10

Jack bit his lip forcing his aching head to think. Mac was out cold. Jack winced as he slid the kid away from him and stretched him out on the stone. He wished he had a blanket or jacket to wrap up Mac, but he didn't. Jack stood stepping around Mac blindly reaching for the wall.

The complete lack of light was dizzying. Jack felt as if he had been thrown into the blackness of space. He had no sense of time and the stone blocked out all noise except his and Mac's breathing. It was so quiet his ears hummed with pressure. Jack had trouble staying focused his mind running fast as a train trying to escape mentally if not physically. He knew that if they were in this cell too long it wouldn't be physical needs that would do them in, but sensory starved madness.

Jack leaned on the rock and slowly followed it around the chamber. It was about ten feet long and six feet wide. He stopped at the door. It was heavy steel with a long hinge bolted into the stone. He felt no keyhole, knob or latch. Damn. Jack turned to return to Mac when the kid screamed. Jack's heart lurched and bright sparks blasted across his eyes. His ears rang with the echo of the tormented cry.  
"Mac? Mac!" He called he could hear Mac tilting into panic. He cursed and tried to move faster, but he didn't want to trip over his friend.

"J...Jack?" Mac's voice was strangled with terror.

"Yeah, kiddo, I'm coming over to ya."

"Jack! I can't see! I'm blind! JACK!" Jack felt his toe bang into Mac's side. Mac screamed again. Jack closed his eyes trying to stop Mac's panic from causing his own to take over. He crouched and put out a hand finding Mac's forearm. Mac squeaked and tried to pull away crying out in pain.

"Hey, hey...shhhh, it's me, kiddo. You're ok, you're not blind we're in a cell without any light, you hear me, Mac." Jack slowly eased to the floor making sure he kept contact with Mac. He felt Mac's cold shaking hand grab onto his arm.

"Jack…" Jack could hear tears in that one word. Jack ran his hand up Mac's body until he reached Mac's head. He ran his fingers through Mac's hair and rubbed his thumb across the kid's wet cheek. Mac's hand grabbed Jack's wrist and his head tilted into Jack's hand. Jack could hear his partner slow his breathing until he regained control. Jack smiled. Even when his breathing was easier, Mac didn't pull away.

"Better?" Jack asked. Mac cleared his throat.

"I'm fine." His voice cracked. Jack shook his head.

"Why am I not surprised? How are your feet, and don't tell me fine." There was a long pause.

"I can't feel them." Jack's eyes widened. That was seriously not good. He could feel tension building again in Mac's quaking body. Jack moved forward and carefully eased Mac up until he was essentially sitting in the older man's lap. Mac groaned his fingernails digging into Jack's arm as he tried to get control of his pain. Jack wrapped his hand around the kid's shuddering body and pulled him close.

"Jack...don't…" Jack could hear Mac's embarrassment.

"Relax buddy, this will keep both of us warmer and I won't lose track of you in the dark." Mac snorted.

"I don't think I'll be wondering off." Jack laughed and rested his forehead on Mac's shoulder. He absently brushed back Mac's hair. Mac let out a deep breath, his body relaxing against Jack's chest. They were quiet for a long minute each lost in their own thoughts.

"Mac?"

"Hmm?"

"Who's Percy? You've never spoken about him before." He could feel Mac's muscles tighten then relax one by one.

"When I first went to MIT, I was a bit...lost." Jack thought about a midteen Angus who'd been bullied because of his brains. He could picture him being socially awkward looking for his niche in life. Mac sighed, "I...well, my first roommate...wasn't very nice. He was an economics major…" Mac's voice trailed off and Jack could feel the kid try to swallow his emotions. He cleared his throat, "His name was Ashley."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he came from old money...you know the type. He and his friends were...pranksters." From the tone in his voice, Jack knew that these pranks crossed the line into cruelty. Mac rushed on before Jack could ask for details.

"I didn't strike back because I'd just gotten into MIT and my grandfather...my gramps, I didn't want to disappoint him, you know?"

"I do."

"Anyway, one day I...I don't know I kinda snapped and ran away."  
"Ran away? Back home?" Mac chuckled then bent forward in pain. Jack waited until Mac got his breath back.

"No, I was stupid I stormed off into Boston and got completely lost. I ended up wandering around Roxbury."

"I assume that's bad?"

"Think Mali without the music or soccer."

"Damn."

"Yeah, I reached the worst part where there is nothing but burnt out and boarded buildings. I ran into a group of the local residents…" Jack heard the sarcasm and could picture Mac's wry smile.

"Gangs?" Jack guessed.

"Yeah, the 7s. They were pissed off I didn't have any money so decided to 'take it out of my hide', their words not mind." Jack's jaw clenched. He knew how vicious gangs could be. The idea of his partner attacked by that pack of hyenas made his blood boil. He pulled Mac closer. Mac patted Jack's hand acknowledging what he knew was going through Jack's head.

"So they beat you up."

"Yeah, it's not the worst beating I've ever had...not like…" Mac's voice trembled. Jack automatically added in the 'now.' He put his head on Mac's shoulder. Mac leaned his head over and took a minute to bring himself back under control, "Anyway, I was not in good shape. They were going to put me out of my misery when Percy showed up. I have no idea why he did what he did, but he stopped them took me home and took care of me for a month." Jack closed his eyes. He knew there were a lot of gaps in that story that he would never hear from Mac, but at least he had an answer.

"How is he mixed up in this mess?"

"His gang, the 7s wanted to take over turf from the Irish Mob…"

"Daring."

"No kidding, let's just say they started to disappear at a fast rate."

"Killed." Jack assumed.

"No, disappeared. No trace of them ever again."

"The Cohn brothers?"

"No, Percy was one of the Cohn brothers…"

"What? Maggie said they're like the boogeyman at Cascade."

"Really? That's weird. I know Lubeman was making moves in Boston at the same time maybe that's how their paths crossed." Jack felt Mac shrug,

"Lubeman has connections in Boston." Jack said thoughtfully.

"What?" Jack told him about what they had learned about Lubeman.

"Refrigerator trucks?" Jack didn't answer knowing that Mac was chewing through ideas. Mac shifted and groaned. Before Jack could ask, Mac said, "Stop it, I'm fine."

"I didn't say anything." Jack said with fake defensiveness. Mac chuckled then gasped in pain.

"I can feel worry ooze out of you."

"Are you sure that's not sweat?" Both men broke into laughter. Mac broke off crying out and leaning forward. Jack again ran his hand gingerly through Mac's hair. Mac arched back and took in a shaking breath.

"I...re...really hate...fucked up ribs."

"I hear ya, kiddo. That's it just breathe...that's it." They were quiet again their breath the only sound.

"Do you think they're just gonna leave us in here?" Mac's voice was taut with pain and small with fear. Jack let out a deep breath shoving his own worry farther down.

"I don't know, bud."

"No one knows where we are." Mac sighed.

"I know, but Riley found us neck deep in quicksand in the middle of Uganda, she'll find us." Mac nodded, but didn't reply. Jack scowled feeling Mac spiral into defeat.  
"So what's up with the refrigeration trucks?" Jack could almost hear the kid's brow furrow.

"I don't know," Jack knew how much that admission hurt Mac. Jack could feel Mac rubbing his forehead with both hands.

"Mac?" Jack asked his worry spiking.

"Headache." Mac mumbled. His voice was thick with fatigue. Jack frowned a new idea coming to him.

"Mac, how long before we run out of air?"

"It's not the lack of air, but the increase in CO2." Mac mumbled. Jack rolled his eyes.

"How long before we stop breathing?" Mac was quiet running calculations.

"About 8 hours, depending on breathing, activity…" Mac's voice trailed off as he slumped back. Jack leaned his cheek against Mac's damp hair wishing he could still the shaking in his partner's weak body.

"Aw, kid." Jack said feeling his eyes fill with tears.


	11. Chapter 11

Bozer hummed along with _Superfly_ as he yawned and stretched. The long line of trucks in front of him kept a steady direction and speed heading north along the I-5 then CA-126. Bozer glanced at the clock on his dashboard. They'd been driving almost an hour not counting the many delays in traffic. They were passing a lake surrounded by low scrubby hills. Bozer thought it was the Santa Clara river, but had no ideas about the hills. Probably some sort of national park.

Bozer straightened up alert as the trucks slowed. They turned onto a dirt road that ran through a non-town. Bozer had seen small towns that looked like a massive city compared to this small grouping of houses. A sign that said Piru, unincorporated affirmed his beliefs. Bozer hung back frowning. A few people were gathered at an outdoor range shooting rifles. They all turned to eye him. Bozer looked straight ahead.

"Drive casual." He told himself, "Why wouldn't you be here in some chicken scratch hillbilly town-wanna be following a hundred refrigeration trucks? Nothing odd about that, right?" The trucks turned into a sprawling dirt lot that sided a flat brick building with three stacks smoking above the flat roof. Bozer glanced around him and smiled. A dilapidated abandoned ice cream stand stood half fallen across the street. He pulled his car behind the pile of splintered and leaning boards edging forward until he could see the activity around the trucks. Bozer pulled a pair of Bushnell binoculars out of the glove compartment. Mac had given to them when he'd graduated from spy school.  
In faded white letters Bozer could read "Piru Cannery founded 1902." Bozer frowned trying to pull info about canneries. All he could remember was the Steinbeck novel _Cannery Row_ he'd ditched in tenth grade. Bozer watched as hundreds of black clad figures swarmed around the trucks like ants on sugar cubes. The Slice 'n Dice company definitely sold meat, but it wasn't a meat anyone Bozer knew would ever buy. Bozer lowered the binocs and closed his eyes trying to swallow the bile backing up in his throat. The trucks carried bodies in freeze-dried plastic. Bozer could see that they were cut surgically in different ways.

"There can't be that many cannibals?" Bozer muttered to himself. He returned to watching. His eyebrows raised when a row of six men and one woman in well fitted, expensive suits formed a semicircle on the loading dock. They all carried bags- four attache cases and three fat sagging leather bags. Bozer had seen enough TV to know a money exchange when he saw one. He watched as a black hearse pulled up to the dock. Workers slid four bodies into the back and shut the door. With the tinted windows and grief curtains, there would be no way for anyone to see what they carried.

Bozer lowered the binoculars again and bit his lip. The hearse clearly held the purchasers. What could someone want with old hacked up bodies? Was the cannery paying the funeral people to get rid of the corpses? If so, it would take a long time to get rid of that many bodies. Bozer felt his heart flip-flop. A cannery and corpses? No, they wouldn't...would they? Bozer shook his head. Use logic, dummy. This cannery hadn't been used in well over 80 years.

Bozer snapped the glasses to his eyes again. The final six trucks had pulled up to the dock. The others had pulled away to the back of the cannery. Most of the black clad figures had returned inside the cannery. They were replaced by teams of nurses and doctors pushing machinery between them. The back of the trucks open and Bozer saw stacks of bodies, not dead, not cut, but living bodies attached to monitors and tubes. They were on stretchers stacked six high on either side of the truck. Medics inside the truck pulled them out and handed them off to the waiting medical teams who hooked them up to different machines then hurried them into the building.

Bozer sighed and rubbed his eyes. He froze and looked up smiling. I got it. He told himself.

"Illegal organs." This was a black market organ harvesting plant; that was the only thing that made sense. And the bodies? Tissues? Or maybe people others paid to have disappeared? This was like the shopping mall of gruesome. Bozer pulled out his phone and speed dialed Matty. It went straight to voicemail. Bozer frowned and tried the others, they all went to voicemail. Bozer scowled. What the hell was going on? His panicking heart told him to get in the car and speed back to LA to find out, but his logical new spy-brain told him that the answers were here. Bozer took a deep breath and nodded. He crept out of the car and hugging the brush along the dirt parking lot, eased his way to the cannery.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Riley hissed bending down talking to Cage who leaned in the doorway. Cage held her long hair in her hand as she followed the thin wires to the hooks holding them. She frowned. The wires twirled into a braid which climbed the wall. Cage followed the thicker cord and saw that all of the wires formed similar bundles. They all united in a large white box wired over the door the girls knelt behind. Samantha scowled. She could see their hope and fear as they looked at her. Cage crept back and pushed to her knees.

"There's no way. If you touch any one thread the whole thing goes up." Riley guessed from the blonde woman's expression Cage felt her mouth dry like a desert.

"I don't know. I'm not Mac, but if…" The Aussie was cut off by Riley's phone. Riley pulled it out surprised and put it on speaker.

"Matty?" They heard Matty coughing.

"Have you figured out this mess yet?" Matty demanded. Her voice was tired and squeaky as if she were being choked.

"Where are you?" Cage asked.

"Stuck at the nurse's station." They heard their boss break off coughing and the sharp snap of her Kahr pistol.

"Matty, you do know the building is on fire, right?" Riley said her brow furrowed with worry. She could almost hear Matty's eye roll.

"No, Riley, that never occurred to me, of course I know it's on fire! There's no way out except through that courtyard."

"I don't see any way through to you." Samantha declared pulling hair out of her face.

"Never mind us, we're going to be fine…" Again Matty was interrupted by coughing. They could hear her tell Lee to watch their 3 o'clock.

"If we don't do anything you're going to die." Riley said her voice holding a touch of panic.

"Never mind us, get those girls and get the hell out of here." Matty snarled.

"But Matty…" Cage protested.

"Did that come over as a suggestion? Get out, damn it!"

"Matty, we can't…" Riley began. The phone went dead.

"Crap!" Cage muttered.

"Yeah, what are we going to do?"

M

"Jack?" Mac's feeble whisper snapped across the blackness like a bull whip. Jack jerked awake, not knowing he had been sleeping. He gasped and stared into the blackness. Panic coursed through him making him moan. He rubbed his eyes sure he saw red shadows creep toward him. Pressure pushed against his chest and he coughed fighting to take in air. He felt a cold, damp hand on his shoulder, "Jack?" Jack rubbed his eyes as it all came back to him.

"I was asleep." He mumbled. Mac chuckled. Jack knew it was a soft sound but in the painfully silent black cell it echoed like thunder and rang Jack's ears.

"No kidding." Mac coughed. Jack winced at the harsh wet sound. He could hear every gasp as Mac fought for breath in the thin air of the room. Jack was about to ask Mac about it when the kid interrupted him, "Jack...I have an idea." Jack straightened. Mac moaned as he was pushed up with the motion. Jack winced and settled back. He'd forgotten Mac was leaning against him. Mac took a few seconds to catch his breath.

"Whatcha thinking kiddo?"

"Could you feel the ceiling when you were standing up?" Jack blinked. It felt like a year ago when he'd walked around the room. His legs were numb under Mac's shaking weight.

"No, I didn't think to, why? It's probably stone like everything else, right?" Mac gagged, rolled to his side and spit. Jack automatically rubbed the kid's back.

"C...can't be. Walls are...carved stone, no way to...hold them up." Jack eased Mac up to sitting.

"It has to be something lighter?"

"In re...real dungeons used...wood."

"But this is modern day?" Jack added.

"Think...plastic...to stay airtight." Mac's voice was thick with fatigue. Jack gently shook him. His partner gasped and dug his fingernails into Jack's arm, "M...might be able to...to crack...brittle…" Jack grinned.

"Even if it doesn't get us out of here, it could get us some air." Mac patted Jack's arm taking a minute to catch his breath.

"Ok, let me see what we got." He gently slid Mac against the cold wall. Mac tried to hold back his pain but a cry of anguish broke through. Jack reached out and held one of Mac's hands and ran the other up his arm until he could cup the kid's face. Jack didn't like how cold and clammy his partner felt, "Just hang in here for a minute ok?"

"I...I'm fine." Jack nodded at the irritation in Mac's voice. Jack stood up and with his hands reaching blindly ahead of him in the dark made it to what he thought was the center of the room. He reached up, but didn't feel anything. He tried jumping. His fingers brushed something that had the feel of hard rubber. Jack bent over sucking in air. He glanced at his watch and scowled. They only had an hour of oxygen left. Working to break the roof would shorten that time, but what other option did they have?


	12. Chapter 12

"Ok, so how are we going to do this?" Jack said moving to stand up, "I could lift you…"

"No, Jack, that won't work." Mac broke off in a run of weak coughs. Jack crouched beside his friend finding the kid's arm wishing he could see Mac's face.

"Look Mac, we'll both get out of here and get you to the doctor…" Mac put his hand on Jack's forearm.

"Listen, our only hope is to get out the roof and the only one who can do that is you."

"I'm not tall enough." Jack growled in frustration. Mac squeezed Jack's arm, his shaking hand cold and slick with moisture.

"You probably will be if you climb on my shoulders."

"Mac, how the hell.."

"Trust me, pull me over away from the wall." Jack shook his head and gritted his teeth.

"I hate this."

"I know, big guy. It's the only way, besides you love to come rescue me...so I never hear the...end of it right?" Jack knew what it was taking out of Mac to keep up the positive attitude. The truth was, both of them were on borrowed time unless they did something-now.

Jack ran his hands across Mac's back until he had his hands under Mac's arms. Mac cried out as Jack dragged him to where he thought the middle of the room was. Mac's chest pumped and the kid's wheeze became more pronounced. Jack crouched and put an arm across Mac's thin shaking shoulders. Mac heaved in air for a long minute. Jack felt Mac grab his hand and turn it palm up. The blonde placed something in it.

"Careful...sharp." Jack carefully fingered the object. It was made of thin metal. The sides were folded in and two rounded sharp edges poked out on either end. It was about three inches long.

"What'd you make this from?"

"Top of a can...when they were dragging...me back...after…" Mac trailed off, Jack thought it had nothing to do with the growing lack of air. He squeezed Mac's shoulder. Mac patted his hand, "Stand...on my shoulders...cut plastic…"

"Mac, there's no way you can…"

"Jack! Just do it." Jack scowled and ground his teeth together. He didn't see any other option. He heard Mac groan as he set himself, sitting up with his arms braced behind him. Jack put a boot on Mac's shoulder hating ever pound he eased on his brother's shoulders. Mac began to shake more and hissed in pain, but didn't say anything. Jack was pretty sure it was only strength of will, or stubbornness that kept Mac steady and sitting up. Jack put his full weight on the kid and reached up.

The ceiling had a soft rubber feel to it, but bounced with pressure.

"Ok, I got it…" Mac sucked in air as a response. Jack held his arms out as Mac shifted position. He steadied himself with a hand flat on the roof and began carving with the improvised knife. Sweat ran down his back and his own breathing became coarse. He pulled a thick rubber layer off. He moaned at the feel of stone tile. He was about to tell Mac when he realized he could push the squares up.

"I got it, Mac! I got it!"

"Great." Mac's weak whisper motivated Jack. He shoved with all his strength sliding one of the tiles away. He was blinded by sunlight and cried out as it burned a hole through his skull. He glanced down at Mac and almost fell over. Mac was covered with blood and his feet...Jack felt sick. Jack thought of jumping down staying with his partner. With the ceiling open, air wouldn't be a problem.

Jack shook his head. He had to go for help if Mac was going to live. Jack found solid iron frames holding the tile. He grabbed both sides and pulled himself up. Mac gave a soft sigh and collapsed on his side. Jack yelled in protest and pain as the iron dug into his palms. He managed to balance his feet on the metal. He shook back and forth with the effort and torment in his side.

Jack blinked, his eyes finally working. With his sight back and anger flushing his system he was going to murder an army. Jack breathed deeply his hands folding into fists one holding a lethal blade. The air was still and dusty, but felt like an ocean's breeze. He crouched and looked down. His heart shattered as he studied Mac's injuries. Mac didn't move. If it wasn't for the kid's wheezing breaths, Jack would have thought his partner was dead.

"I'll be back, kiddo. You better be alive, you got that?" Jack thought he heard a soft moan, but wasn't sure if it was wishful thinking or not.

Four feet above him another row of tiles spread in every direction. Jack reached up and frowned. These were wood, old and warped. The space was about the size of a football field and light shone in through holes rotted through the wood.

Jack stepped lightly from iron brace to iron brace heading for the largest hole. He paused realizing that he could hear voices above him, a lot of voices. He braced his hands against the wooden panels as he walked. He slowed as he neared the opening. The wood was darkened with mold and mildew and warped by moisture. Jack peeked up and raised his eyebrows. A vast nest of machinery spread above him. Jack could make up the wires, motors and rolling platform of an assembly line.

"What th-" Jack whispered. He had a foot and a half clearance at the highest, only a foot under the larger machines. Jack winced as splinters spiked his hand. The wood crumbled under his fingers. Directly above him a long ribcage of rusty tubing ran along the conveyor belt.  
Jacked grabbed one and heaved himself up. His side flamed into agony. He could feel the warm squish as the bullet wound tore open and blood soaked the dressing around his torso. Jack bit his lip to keep himself from screaming. His back and shoulders burned as he pulled himself up and along the pipe using only his arms.

Jack's lungs flapped like bellows and he grunted with every sliver of wood that pushed under his skin. Finally, he reached the edge of the machinery and eased himself down on linoleum tile. He flinched at the cold under his bare back but rested a long minute catching his breath. He rolled onto his stomach and pulled himself to the dark edge of the shadows toward the voices. Jack wrinkled his nose. The musty metallic stench of blood was overpowering.

Jack peeked out and raised his eyebrows. Beside the largest part of the apparatus was a railing and cat walk. Jack out until he could look down.

"Holy shit." Jack breathed. Below him in the vast openness of a warehouse rows and rows of gurney's filled with bodies covered almost all of the stained cement floor. The carts were in pairs of two and each station swarmed with doctors and nurses, tubes and medical stuff.

Jack's stomach churned as he realized what they were doing- harvesting organs. Jack knew it was a billion dollar industry, but he'd never seen it on this scale before. He narrowed his eyes and leaned further over the edge of the walkway. The bodies being harvested came from all walks of life. Jack saw some covered with street tats, some fat men that had never worked a day outside of an office and everything in between. The organs were slid into biohazard carrying containers or implanted in bodies in the next bed.

Jack noticed the catwalk in front of him circled the room. The wall across from him and to the left had only rusted railings. Jack looked down at the knife Mac had made. A can lid...he was in a cannery. Jack rubbed his forehead. In the roof of the abandoned plant held rows of ventilation windows. Unlike the rest of the building, these were new and let in hot sun. None of them were open. Jack blinked sweat away from his eyes.

He scanned for a way down to the ground level when he saw a familiar figure being held between two meaty men in black.

"Bozer? What the hell?" Jack growled. He grimaced at the bruises on the younger man's face and the tears in his clothes. Bozer hung limp in the two men's arms. Jack felt his heart pound. He had to get to Boze before they did to him what they did to Mac.

"Shit." Jack grumbled pulling himself out of hiding and dashed toward a hanging rusty ladder. It didn't look sturdy, but it was on the same side of the building they were dragging Bozer toward.

Bozer was in a world of hurt. He'd been beaten up before. Back when his life was taking a left turn and he started to hang out with the wrong crowd, fighting was a matter of course. He and all of his would-be gang banger friends, Bozer had been pummelled in street fights. He gave as good as he got and usually the other dude landed on the pavement bleeding more than he did. His younger self could never have predicted this systematic professional assault.

Bozer moaned forcing his swollen eyes open. He was tied to a metal table. This is so not cool. Boze saw two guys in black standing in the corner bored. He ran his dry tongue over his lips and winced feeling the knuckle bruises and split skin.

He wasn't sure exactly what had happened. One second he was creeping into the old brick structure the next the sky wordlessly fell on him. Bozer never had a chance to fight. He was slammed down then kicked into unconsciousness. Bozer's stomach rebelled and everything had a fuzzy halo. His heart hammered desperately at its cage.

A tall doctor strolled into the room. Bozer narrowed his eyes. He recognized Lubeman from his dossier. Bozer's gut sank to the floor. The man had a giddy bounce to his steps and paced his hands pressed together to pray or clap. Bozer suspected Lubeman was the type to clap with every grunt and snort of pain. Bozer studied the room. Nothing. Well, nothing good. A sinister metal doodad, a pair of cattle prods. Bozer swallowed and almost gagged at the taste of his own blood. I so do not want to be cattle prodded. He told himself. He eyed the metal contraption. It had teeth and bolts that ended in sharp needles. Bozer had seen enough movies to know this wasn't going to end well. Bozer took a breath and braced himself.

Bozer had no idea what Lubeman wanted, but he was determined the lunatic wouldn't be getting it from him. Bozer refused to look at the torture implements.

"Another one and so soon." Bozer's eyebrows went up and he gave the creepy doctor a puzzled look. Lubeman cocked his head, his lips pressed tight, "A skinny blond?"

"MAC!" Bozer blurted pulling at his bindings. Bozer knew his mistake the second he saw the satisfied look in the sadist's eyes. Lubeman leaned closer. Bozer pulled his head back as far it would go. He closed his eyes and turned away as the man leaned close enough his knobby beak was almost touching Bozer's nose. Bozer gagged at the man's breath. It smelled like mothballs and ammonia. Gross.

"He didn't say anything, I'm afraid. Maybe you won't be as stupid as he was." Bozer's belly clenched. Was?

"Where is he?" Bozer demanded through gritted teeth. Lubeman's smile was slow and he leaned even closer his nose almost poking out Bozer's eye. The man's spittle sprayed Bozer's face as he talked. Bozer turned away feeling like Princess Leia must have when Jabba tried to french kiss her. Ugh. In his disgust, he almost missed what Lubeman said.

"He's dead. He died alone. Unable to walk as he slowly suffocated in a tiny unlit cell." Bozer's eyes flashed with fury. Bozer did a Jack Dalton and slammed his forehead into that gnarly proboscis. Lubeman reared back with a loud cry of pain. He covered his nose. Blood gushed between his fingers. His eyes tipped from rage to rabid insanity. Oh crap. Bozer looked over to the two goons. Both stepped forward their boredom replaced by small grins. Job satisfaction? Bozer frantically yanked on his bindings but remained pinned to the metal. Shit.

"Thake care oth thim!" Lubeman shrieked as he dashed from the room. The two bruisers looked at each other and had a silent argument. The bigger of the two shrugged and stepped back content to wait his turn. Fuck.

"Now, look...I think you're missing the big pic-" Bozer broke off as his head was pivoted to the side by a fist the size of a frozen ham. Bozer's teeth clicked together and he thought one of them had cracked. Bozer cringed as the dude wound up for another devastating blow. It never came.

There was a flurry of movement and the man was pulled back. Before Boze could blink, there was a bone breaking snap and the man fell to the ground dead. Bozer looked up in time to see Jack push off the bottom of the table and hit the other opponent full in the chest with his boots. The man backed up stunned.

"YEAH!" Bozer yelled rooting for Jack as if he were a quarterback running the ball. Jack followed his kick nimbly landing on his feet facing Bozer. Jack spun with a half-mule kick aimed at the man's knee. It didn't snap, but the man's scream let Bozer know it might as well have. The burly bodyguard bent forward clutching his knee with both hands. Jack set himself on his left leg and raised his right knee. He grabbed the man by the ears and slammed his head down against the bone. The man howled in pain. Jack let him go, paused then stomped on the base of the man's skull where it joined the spine. The fragile atlas vertebrae separated snapping the spinal cord in half.  
Jack stared at the pair making sure they were dead. He held his side and winced as he bent and pulled out a heavy circle of keys. He yanked out the pistols from both goon's belt and scowled. No extra mags. Damn.

"...it is a total Wookie life debt, dude. Oh my God, you have no idea…" Jack wiped his face and leaned over releasing Bozer. He half listened to the younger man's prattle. They had to get back to Mac like yesterday.


	13. Chapter 13

"Any ideas?" Riley asked as she poked her head carefully through the door and studied the intricate spider web of tripwires. She glanced over at Cage hoping to see some sort of good news on her face. There wasn't any. Cage gritted her teeth and fought the urge to strangle her phone.

"It's as useless as tits on a bull!" Cage growled. Riley raised an amused eyebrow. Cage huffed and pushed back a long lock of blond hair falling across her face, " Everybody's phone goes directly to voicemail." Riley swallowed feeling a pit in her gut.

"Something's wrong." As she said it, Riley knew it. Cage nodded and scowled over at the girls trying to think of something. Cage squawked and almost dropped her phone. She breathed out in relief.

"Jack, I am so glad to hear from you, we need your help…" Cage's voice was breathless with the urgency of her rambling.

"Uh...sorry pretty hair, this is Maggie...you know Maggie Blue?" Cage scowled and put the phone on speaker.

"Why do you have Jack's phone?" Cage demanded. There was a moment of silence where they could hear squealing and a loud series of horn honks.

"There was an attack at the safe house, Jack...he sent me to come tell you. I'm almost there. You find anything incriminating like?" Maggie sounded casual as if she were asking about the weather. They heard another series of squeals and Maggie yelling,

"Outta the way you ol' bat...Yeah you too bi-"

"Maggie, where's Jack and Mac now?" Riley said fear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry...yeah drop dead buddy! Asshole...not you, Riley...what were you ask-right, I don't know. Him and Macaroni were taken by a bunch of goons in black...they are the same ones that work the Quiet hall…" Riley frowned and studied the hall they were in.

"Maggie, which hall was that unit on?"

"South...Oh shut up! Same to you...I'm on the main road, ok I'm pulling up where are you?"

"East wing." Cage said. The phone went dead. Cage bit her lip then ran out the way they came in. Riley was already half down the hall. They had just cleared the narrow gap between the fence and building as Jack's Shelby skidded sideways sliding to a stop in front of them. The car was covered with dirt and had several dents and dings in the black paint. It smelled like burnt rubber.

"Jack is going to kill you." Riley said her eyes wide. Maggie jumped out of the car and threw the keys at Riley. She shrugged.

"I told him I'd never driven before, he didn't believe me so-"

"Maggie, we need to get into the South wing and we can't go through the courtyard." Maggie shoved her short black hair back frowning.

"Of course not, that's where all the bombs are." The two Phoenix agents gaped at her. Maggie held up a hand to shade her eyes. She pointed to the back of the building, "The tunnel is over there. I've never been inside but I've seen people rolled up the ramp and put into trucks. I knew Jason had something going on but-" Maggie trailed off biting her lip. Tears built in her eyes. Cage narrowed her eyes and studied the escaped patient like a falcon swooping on a morning dove.

"Jason? Jason Lubeman?" Riley froze her eyes wide. Maggie pushed the hair above her forehead back and started pacing.

"I know, I know. I wanted to tell you...but…" Riley glanced at the building and nodded.

"She's yours isn't she?" Maggie whirled her mouth hanging open.

"Is she here? Did that bastard bring Ambril here? Where is she? I have to find her-" Maggie turned to run inside the building. Riley and Cage stopped her from running into the building which now had a thick cloud of smoke curling around it like a robber's fist.

"She's inside the double doors between the South hall and the courtyard." Cage said. Maggie's eyes widened and she pulled against the other women's grip, "She's wired to explosives." Maggie stepped back her pale face turning to waxy bone.

"No, he wouldn't." Maggie hissed. Riley and Cage exchanged a puzzled expression.

"He's her dad, isn't he?" Riley asked. Maggie looked away and angrily swiped at tears that leaked from the corner of her eyes.

"I...I had been dropped off by my...family...they couldn't handle me anymore they said...he...I didn't have a choice, ya know?" Riley swallowed and reached out a hand. The tall woman's thin shoulders quaked with suppressed sobs. Maggy held her hand with a cold claw.

"You have to understand...after...I...but she came and...I thought he loved her."

"And you?" Cage asked gently. Maggy laughed. It was a blunt sound that was a razor cutting into their hearts.

"No, no one ever loved me...and it's ok, I get it...but Ambrile...she's my light, I have to...please help me." Cage smiled.

"That's the plan." Cage's phone rang.

"Matty! Where are you?" Riley demanded before their boss could say a word. Matty gagged and coughed. They could hear the same noise from Lee farther away. Cage turned her eyes following the blackening cloud back to its source.

"Matty, are you ok?" Riley demanded.

"We're trapped." Matty managed to gasp out. Maggy leaned over the phone.

"Where are you?"  
"At the nurse's station by the lobby." Maggy smiled.

"Good, behind the banana tree over by the chairs in the waiting area is a vent, that vent goes down to the tunnel where the quiet unit is."

There was a long minute where they couldn't hear anything over the loud roar of the fire. Then Matty coughed.

"Ok, got it. You guys ok topside?" Cage and Riley shared a serious look and nodded.

"Yeah we got it be careful the quiet unit's down there."

"Quiet sounds good." Lee Warren gagged in the background.

"Good luck." Matty said then hung up. Cage slid the phone back into her pocket. She bit her lip.

"Ok, so it'd down to us. What would Mac do?" Cage asked. Maggie laughed. The others turned to her surprised. Maggie led them to the South Wing door.

"He'd blow something up, duh." Maggie said. Cage chuckled. Riley raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you aren't wrong." She said.

"Ok, we need to get to the South wing."

"Shouldn't we call 911 or something?" Maggie asked. Riley frowned.

"They should already be here." She murmured following Maggy to the opposite side of the building.

"With his connections our friend Lubeman probably told them to stay away." Cage growled pulling her pistol. Maggie looked at her over her shoulder alarm deep in her black eyes.

"Why would he do that?" Riley and Cage shared a glance. Was the girl that naive?

"Get rid of evidence." Riley said softly patting the thin woman on the shoulder. Maggie turned to stare at her a long minute.

"He would think Ambril is evidence? Evidence of what-?"

"We can ask him later." Cage said as they drew up to a wide steel emergency door. It was locked and the lock was rusty. Maggy gently pushed the Aussie away and pulled out her Grape Crush lockpicks. She worked the lock a long time.

"So what are we going to do about the explosives?" Riley said impatiently turning taking in the parking lot. Cage sighed and shrugged.

"Really not much we can do about it. Let's get the girls out…"  
"But Matty?"

"Will have to take care of herself." Cage's worried look told Riley how worried she was. With a loud click the door lock finally opened. It took all three women to drag the door open. It cracked then screeched open. They coughed as smoke curled out of the door. Riley pulled her shirt up over her nose and clicked on her phone's flashlight. She grimaced at the spiderwebs, these made and occupied by genuine arachnids and pushed her way through feeling her skin crawl.

"They never use this door," Maggie whispered as she ducked behind Cage. Cage absently nodded and concentrated on following Riley's light. The black smoke stank of plastic and chemicals. It filled the hallway whirling in front of Riley like a death mask trying to break through a wall of solid fog. In seconds all three women were covered with a black choking film on their skin and burning their lungs. They gagged as they crept as fast as they could down the hall.

Riley kept her hand on the wall and her other hand holding Cage's as she slid along as low to the ground as she could. Her thighs and butt burned. More yoga was in her future, she promised herself. Riley caught glimpses of what could only be described as torture chambers as she passed. Some of the rooms were full of machinery with wires connected to metal beds, others had blades and things hanging on the wall Riley didn't want to identify. She shook her head. What the hell were they doing at this place?

Riley ran face first into the glass doors, Cage and Maggie pushing into her back. They all stepped back in surprise. Maggie fell to her knees and put a hand against the glass. Tears streamed down her face.

"Ambril!" She screamed pounding on the glass. The two girls sat cross legged bound and gagged. This close, the three women could see the flashing red numbers. Ten minutes, "Maggy, turned and blindly pulled at the door yanking it hard and screaming." Cage pulled her back and shook her.

"Maggy? MAGGY! Calm down, we're going to get them but we have to be smart. Those vests are rigged to explode." Cage said shaking the taller woman's slim shoulders. Maggie blinked and looked back as Ambril. She nodded and dropped to the door leaning against it, putting a hand against the heating glass. She knew neither of the girls could hear her, but she kept talking to them. They were so scared.

"It's ok, babies, we're gonna get you out of there, ok?" Maggy smiled and nodded. The girls looked relieved at her presence, "I'm not going anywhere without both of you, ok?" Ambril nodded. The other girl, who had to be Heaven sniffed and started crying. Maggy looked up at Cage and Riley who were studying the door and small room beside it. She closed her eyes. God never once answered her prayers and over the years she figured he was just pissed at her and she sort of got pissed off back at him, but now Maggy closed her eyes and begged for her girl's life.

Riley ignored the woman at her feet. She turned to Cage.

"I don't think the door's wired."

"I don't see any wires connecting the vests to the mess in the courtyard. Ok, first step is to get in." Cage said. Riley opened her mouth to suggest something. Cage pulled out her pistol and shot three rounds into the glass. It spiderwebbed then shattered falling to the ground. Maggy had ducked at the first gunshot and was oblivious to the guillotine of sharp shards raining down on her as she pushed through to her daughter's side.

"Maggy, wait!" Riley said pulling Maggy up before she could wrap both girls in her arms. Maggy looked at her despair on her face. The timer flashed four minutes. Riley studied the vests and glanced at Cage.

"We can't undo the wiring or timer." Riley said. Cage nodded and bent over. She slid her weapon in its holster and pulled a six inch black steel combat knife from a holster on her shin. Riley raised an eyebrow. Cage smiled and shrugged. Carefully she and Riley bent and cut into the thick canvas vests.

In two minutes Ambril was free. She ran to her mother's arms.

"Go!" Cage roared at her. Maggy paused then nodded sprinting in what she hoped was the right direction. They had Heaven out of her vest in thirty seconds. Cage didn't bother untying the girl. She slung the eight-year old over her shoulder and followed Riley who raced after Maggy her flashlight barely breaking through the solid pall of suffocating blackness. They were halfway down the hall when the twin explosions banged. Cage grunted wincing at pain in her knees as she was thrown to the cracking tile. She forced it away focusing on climbing to her feet and chugging down the corridor.

Riley could see the brightness of the outside door when the building shook and a nonstop crackle of explosions blasted ceiling tiles and debris down on them. Riley choked trying to get reoriented. A hand grabbed her shirt and pulled her out the door. She was shoved into the back seat of Jack's Shelby which roared to life as it sped down the long drive. Riley climbed up the seat and looked back as the building became the mushroom center of a bursting bag of fireworks.

"Matty." Riley whispered, tears burning her eyes.

M

"So how are we gonna get over there?" Bozer asked as he crouched beside Jack. Jack shot him a glare of pretend anger.  
"That is the problem now, isn't it Bozer." He growled. Bozer rubbed at a steady stream of blood leaking down his forehead. Jack scanned the warehouse. They crouched behind a number of tall rusted tanks watching the flurry of butchery that separated them from the double doors that led to the cells Mac and Jack had been kept in. Jack eyed the machinery behind him and smiled, "I got an idea, c'mon."

Jack slid to his knees and crawled under the largest piece equipment. He came up behind it. The conveyor belt formed a narrow oval around them, this machine the turn leading to a series of smaller machines farther down the space Jack and Bozer stood. Jack grinned. He'd found a control center. Bozer looked at it skeptically.

"Do you know what you're doing? He whispered holding a hand across his middle. Jack shrugged.

"I worked a summer at a meat packing plant, how hard can it be?" The older man began to push every button and switch. He growled as nothing happened.

"That's ok, Jack…" Bozer's reassurance broke off as there was a loud crashing noise and the conveyor belt whirred into life. Jack grinned at Bozer and shinnied back the way they came. Bozer closed his eyes as pain wracked his body. Jack pulled him up short of standing. Bozer moaned, staying in the crawling position was agony on his bruises and ribs. Jack narrowed his eyes studying the warehouse floor. Most activity had stopped in surprise. A fleet of goons were heading their way.

"Now what?" Bozer grumbled. Jack opened his mouth then shook his head. He had no idea. Above them the conveyor belt stopped moving and the sound of the motor became high-pitched and pushed out heavy smoke that smelled like diesel fuel. Jack smiled. He knew that was going to happen. He grabbed Boze by the shoulder and pulled the younger man after him. Jack tugged him down the corridor they had come from, then pushed him down and covered the younger man with his own body. It took a few minutes before the awful whine grew into a grinding then exploded.

Jack was pushed down by a giant fist that sucked the air away from the two men with its hot breath. They were far enough from the explosion they weren't hurt, but back in the open area of the warehouse floor debris and flames set the old building afire. The screams of humans barbecuing alive always sent shivers down Jack's spine. In his mind, there was no worse way to die...except fire ants in the desert, yeah that would suck too.

"C'mon, buddy." Jack murmured. He helped Bozer stand and limp back to the floor. Smaller explosions from chemicals and oxygen equipment continued to crackle under the loud roar of the inferno around them. No one got in their way. Trying to flee for your life will do that. Jack leaned Boze against the wall as he dashed down the hall. There were six steel doors, thankfully locked from the outside. Sweat beaded along his shoulders as Jack heaved each one open. His side burned and hot blood soaked his entire side. Jack barely noticed. He wrinkled his nose the first four cells held stinking corpses. The oldest looked like a Bog mummy. They had all been left in the airtight blackness to suffocate. Jack's heart thudded.

"Mac, come on kiddo, where are you?" Jack mumbled over and over. The fifth cell was empty. Jack blinked and looked up at the ceiling. He saw a hole cut in the ceiling. Wet blood pooled in the center of the room, "NO, no, no, no…" Jack checked the last cell just in case, but he already knew to the center of his bones that cell number five had been where he'd left Mac. Jack let out a bellow of rage. The last cell held a decomposing family.

"DAMNIT!" Jack raged.

"Jack?" Boze asked panic in his swollen eyes. Jack looked at him

Feeling helplessness wash over him.

"He's gone, Boze. They took him."

Chapter 11 has undergone extensive rewriting, you may want to read that first. Thanks, hope you are all enjoying this so far.


	14. Chapter 14

***A few of you have PM'd me asking why I haven't been keeping up the pace I normally do. I recently got diagnosed with a brain tumor (a baby one) and I will have surgery in the middle of March, so even though I might take a little longer I am planning and writing future stories, never fear! I think of it all as awesome research for Mac stories! Thanks to everybody who asked and sorry to those that really didn't want to know. I think of this fandom as a "dysfunctional lone wolf pack" and thank all of you who hang out in my tiny corner of it. Thank you! And without further ado...

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"Are you ok, Lee?" Matty coughed helping the bigger man to his feet. Lee Warren staggered to his feet and held a hand over a deep tear in both sides of his chest. He coughed and stepped away from the air vent that was pumping out plumes of smoke.

"Definitely gonna start going to the gym." Lee growled. Matty smiled and took in their environment. They were in a square basement. A single light bulb swayed on a chain. The small area was quickly filling with smoke. On the opposite side of the chamber a narrow stairway led down. Matty pulled out her phone and followed Lee down the stairs.

"No signal." She murmured.

"Of course." Lee hissed back staying close to the cement wall as the stairs hooked around to another flight going down. The stairs were not lit, but light came up from below. Lee glanced back at Matty as they reached the final turn. The walls had changed to stone tiles.

Compared to the fire above their heads the air felt fresh and cool. Lee drew up barely staying in shadow. Both heard a familiar voice talking to someone on the phone.

"Of course, Jace. I'm doing that now. This whole place will be gone in five minutes top...when do you land? The safe house near Braintree? You got it. See you soon, babe." Matty shared a smile with Lee. Tabitha, the nurse evidently did more than answer Lubeman's phones.

Lee nodded his head. Matty smiled and pulled out her Kahr. They both silently counted to three then spun down and around the corner.

"Police freeze!" Tabitha let out a squeak and raised her hands.

"I..I didn't do anything." Matty ignored her. The room had a huge bank of computers. Most of them had blank screens but the one in front of Tabitha was scrolling data. Matty smiled as there was a beep and the computer was kind enough to say all data was transferred and would be erased in ten seconds. Matty leaned over and pulled out a flash drive. She looked in Tabitha's purse and smiled pulling out three more.

"Way out?" Lee asked pleasantly. Tabitha swallowed.

"You have to protect me!"

"Move!" Matty growled. The woman put her hands behind her head and lead them down a narrow dark corridor. They reached a metal door and exitted beside the building behind the mental health clinic.  
All three were flattened by the mushroom explosion that changed the building behind them into a smoking basement.

"That was close." Lee grumbled. Matty laughed. Lee shot her a dirty look.

"If you work with us at Phoenix you'd know that was a mile away from a close call."

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Mac was in a world of hurt. He took stock with his eyes closed. First the pains. His feet remained numb but his calves burned as if someone held a torch to broken stumps. Mac moaned. His entire middle was agony, he was relieved. If he felt nothing, his broken back ribs would have severed his spine. So there was that. Mac broke off counting more pains, he didn't have time to worry about it.

Mac was in a box, splinters scraped against his raw and bare flesh. He could breathe and he wasn't cold anymore. That was good. A loud grinding buzz echoed through his entire body. Mac forced his eyes to open. It felt like he was power lifting a black hole. He managed it and frowned. His hair moved as if someone breathed on it. He blinked and raised an eyebrow recognizing a flight attendant call button. Beside it was the round knobs to open vents and turn on reading lights.  
Mac painfully turned his head and realized he was in a coffin sized box. Mac groaned and pushed him up on one elbow. He was in a coffin and he wasn't alone. Shit.

He recognized the plane as a refurbished 747. The passenger's cabin he was in had no seats only rows of pine coffins. Mac smelled formaldehyde and frowned. If Lubeman was into black organ harvesting why was he hauling these dead bodies? Mac fell back and arched his back his breath was stolen by ripples of devastating agony. He panted a long minute trying to keep away the black spots bubbling across his vision.

Mac waited until he got on top of the pain then gritted his teeth and forced himself up. He still wore the shredded hospital gown. It looked like it had been ripped by a mama bear looking for her cubs. Mac snorted. The body underneath it wasn't any better. He shoved it all aside. He shook as he fought to climb to the edge of his coffin. He could hear voices toward the front of the plane. He recognized Lubeman and scowled. Not good. Mac wiped his face and studied his environment. With his shattered feet he knew he wasn't going far. He also knew that there was no way for him to stop the plane this far from the cockpit...or was there? Mac stared up at the controls above his head an idea forming.

"This is gonna really suck." He declared at once bracing himself and apologizing to himself. The box he laid in (Mac refused to call it a coffin) sat on top of another one. He was lucky the other coffins were stacked four high. He pulled on the edge of the box and cried out as he pulled himself over the edge. Mac bit his lip to keep from screaming as he hit the metal poking through dingy and torn carpet. The pine box tipped and landed on top of him. Mac shook with pain, tears running from his eyes.

"Jack." He hissed biting back the uncontrollable tsunami of nauseating pain. He shook cold sweat out of his eyes and let out a cry of pain as he twisted and shoved the box off him. He glanced toward the front of the plane relieved to see either no one heard the loud noise, or no one cared. Mac turned to the box and frowned studying it closely. He smiled and worked at a cracked corner. It was excruciating and seemed to take a century, but he managed to dig a long nail out of the wood. He laid back sucking in air. His fingers were bleeding and he now understood why splinters under fingernails was used as a torture. His hands shook. He forced himself to keep moving. Mac accepted there'd be no way for him to survive, but he'd be damned if he'd let Lubeman keep on with what he was doing.

He had to take him down.

For Percy and Maggie.

Slowly Mac pulled himself over to a space between two stacks of pine boxes. In a way he was lucky, if this had been on a normal passenger airline he'd have to hack through the metal shell and padding to expose the wires he needed. Here they were in plain sight. Mac studied the wires and closed his eyes trying to get his fuzzy brain to work. He nodded and pulled at the wires until two broke free and hung in his hand. Mac stripped the wires with his teeth and wound them around the nail. He pulled up the remnants of his gown telling himself there wasn't anyone to see him naked except the dead and shoved away the embarrassment as irrelevant.

He yanked off a thin bloody strip and wrapped it around the nail. Not great but it'd have to do. He stabbed the nail into a thick cord and worked it under the rubber covering. Mac yanked his fingers back as electricity snapped across the connections. Mac shook out his hand and began to tap with the nail.

Sweat rolled down his face. He had to support his shaking arm with his other hand. He kept tapping then collapsed flat against the floor. He had tapped into the plane's transponder and sent out a 7500 Squawk code. In the entire United States, and most of the rest of the world. Air traffic controllers monitoring planes on radar do so by using that plane's unique code. In emergencies, the pilots could change the code to signal emergencies aboard the flight. Mac had sent the code for hijacking. Best case scenario, Phoenix reads it first and at least will know where Lubeman is when he lands. Worst case scenario they would get shot down by fighter jets scrambled from the closest air base. Mac closed his eyes. Either way it was all he could do, he had nothing else to give.

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It was a somber, bloody and bandaged group that reconvened in the war room. Cage was looking after Maggie Blue so she didn't 'accidently' give away the classified location of Phoenix. Both women and the two girls were hanging out in Phoenix's 24 hour daycare. Riley was working her laptop, her fingers moving fast enough to blur. Bozer and Detective Warren stared at the big screen as if the photos and videos could give them more information than they already had.

Jack twisted wincing at the pull in his side. He paced like a tiger in a small cage. His face was a shade too red and sweat beaded on his forehead. He refused to rest as Doc Carl had ordered. He also refused any pain medicine. Jack had to stay loose, ready to move in an instant.

Matty watched her people with a frown. Losing Mac again especially in such a weakened wounded state didn't help morale at all.

"Ok, Riley what do we know?" She said squaring her shoulders and shoving her own worry away. Riley leaned back and took a sip of soda.

"I got the layout of their entire operation, but no idea where Lubeman is going or why he took Mac."

"What about Boston?" Bozer asked.

"Doubtful, he knows that would be the first place we'd look." Lee said.

"We can't rule it out. This asshat has resources there, people to cover for him." Lee nodded. He ducked his head and put his hand to his chin.

"Good point, Riley, what other hubs did Lubeman have for his trucks."

"I got ten across the country. None of them are in big cities but cities nearby. The only exception is Boston." Lee frowned.

"That's of the ones we know about."

"What do you mean?" Matty snapped.

"Well, this big of an organization you wouldn't want all your eggs in the same basket and that's assuming this is the entire operation." The room was silent a long minute as they took that into consideration.

"So you're saying there's no way to find Mac?" Jack growled. The whole room shook with his barely contained fury.

"Jack, no one is saying that." Matty soothed. She turned to one of the two minions that followed her ready to put her orders instantly into action, "Call all the local agencies, homeland, FBI and anyone else you can think to drag off the street. Send them copies of these files and descriptions of MacGyver. Tell them to get back to me after they take down Lubeman's hubs."

"Right." A tall blond woman said. Both spun as one and went to ops to get the word out.

"Ok so the word's out, "Bozer said hitting his palm with his fist, "are we supposed to just sit here and wait?"

"Yeah, I was wondering that too." Jack snarled.

"No, Riley tell us about the man's organization."

"As far as I can tell, they deal in bodies."

"Living or dead?" Bozer asked wrinkling his nose then wincing as his swollen eye twinged with the movement.

"Actually, both." Riley paused shaking her head, "As far as I can tell, they provide disposal services to killers or groups that want people to disappear."

"Like the 7s." Lee added.

"That'd be a big advantage if you're in with the Irish mob taking over a city." Jack said.

"And for dirty politicians." Bozer added.

"Oh gross, after they pick up the living bodies, they take them to places like the deserted cannery and cut them up for organs to sell on the black market."

"Damn." Bozer said.

"This is all well and good but how does it get us closer to finding Mac before they dissect him?" Jack said. His effort not to yell across the room was visible.

"Jack we…" Matty broke off as her phone rang, "What? Wait you got what? Heading where? No, we'll handle it. Thanks." She looked at the rest of the room a sparkle in her eyes. The others waited squirming with excitement, "That was FAA, a refurbished 747 owned by one of Lubeman's shell companies just sent out a 7500 squawk…" Jack grinned.

"What's that?" Bozer asked.

"It's a hijack code. Great job, buddy. Matty where are they?"

"They're still in the air. Their flight plan is booked for Boston."

"How are we gonna get there in time?" Riley asked. Matty shrugged.

"We'll just have to trust local services…"

"Like hell!" Jack threw over his shoulder as he stalked out of the war room.

"Where the hell are you going?" Matty yelled after him.

"To get my boy, Riley? Boze?" The two shared a confused grin and ran after the older man.


	15. Chapter 15

***Thank you everyone for the prayers and well wishes, they are very appreciated. With all of this support from all of you things will have to go well. In the meantime hurting Mac helps make everything better, doesn't it. :) And speaking of...about time we saved the poor kid, isn't it?

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"I feel the need, the need for speed WHAAAHOOO!"

"I'm gonna puke."

"Bozer, you don't want to do that in your oxygen mask."

"And do not touch anything in that seat, you could start a nuclear war or something." Jack glanced outside the cockpit cover of the F-15E Strike Eagle. The fighter jet he flew in was the center lead of a three plane formation. Bozer was to his left and Riley to his right. Jack grinned like a kid on a rollercoaster, "We are going two and a half times the speed of sound!" Jack crowed.

"I'm really, really gonna puke." Bozer moaned.

"Deep breathe, Boze." Jack grinned. He reached down and changed the communications channel to the one used by the pilots. "Hey, Grouch, how long 'til we're there, man." His pilot chuckled. They'd been friends since Jack had led a rescue op for a crew of a jet that had gone down in an ISIS controlled area. The Deltas had arrived too late to save any of the crew except Oscar Grimaldi, a hotshot airforce pilot known by his friends as Grouch. Jack had never been so happy to cash in a favor in his entire life.

"Well, dog, if we have a good tailwind it'll take about an hour. Even if that ratty ol' plane was zippin' at its fastest she ain' no match for my Bambi. We'll land at least half an hour ahead of them and I got some help set up for ya on the ground."

"Grouch, I think this kid is gonna puke," A deep whispery voice said over the com.

"I think I got the best deal, this girl's a hottie."

"Keep it in your pants, Xena. Riley's too much of a woman for you." Jack piped up. The female pilot laughed.

"There is never too much woman for me." Jack smiled. He'd almost joined the airforce instead of the army. He loved flying, the faster the better, but they started throwing physics and science at him and he decided he was better off busting heads. Jack leaned back and closed his eyes. The roar of the engines and hum of the pilots talking back and forth relaxed him enough to still his fear for Mac enough he could rest.

"We're coming, buddy. Hang on." Jack whispered to himself as he let out a deep breath and slid into sleep.

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"Are you sure this is the plane?" Riley whispered at Jack's side. Jack sent her a worried sideways look.

"It has to be."

"But it's way…"

"Too quiet. Yeah, I know." Of course in an airport like Logan quiet was a relative thing. Jack tuned out the other planes and melee around him. He glanced over to the federal air marshals beside him. They shared the same worry.

Jack, Boze and Riley had arrived at Hanscom field. A squad of FAMs joined them and they helicoptered to Logan. Even with that taken into account, they should have arrived at the same time as their target. The black 747 with the Slice 'n Dice logo painted along the side was hard to miss. In a private hangar at the edge of the airfield, the team and allies were in positions around the hanger and plane. They were ready to move, but...there was no one around. The hangar was empty and there was no movement around the plane.

The little hairs at the nape of Jack's neck curled. He shook his head and spoke into the clear mic at his throat.

"Ok, move in, boys. Anything that ain' us take out." Jack scurried forward in the lead. Riley stayed close to his side with a hand on his back. There was no way he was gonna let anything happen to his girl.

"Ground's clear." A voice said over the com.

"Ok, cabin?" Jack asked.

"Entering now, luck y'all." Jack lead his team to the open hatch in the side of the plane. He crept along the skin of the craft. The hatch was open. He shared a worried look with Riley and nodded at the FAM behind him. A group of marshals dashed across the hatch. They ducked back. Jack nodded and they breached following the painful snap of a flash bang grenade.

Jack froze in the center of the plane in horror. There were pine coffins piled as high as the curved ceiling allowed. Hanging from that ceiling was a digital clock counting down from five minutes. Jack followed wires attached to the timer not surprised to see they lead to packets of explosives spread along both sides of the plane.

"Is that…"

"So not good." Jack murmured.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Riley yelled. She whirled following the marshals to the door. She whirled at a bang behind her. Jack was knocking the caskets down one by one, the carved remains flopping across the floor of the plane. Jack climbed over them to the next coffin.

"Jack! What the hell-"

"Mac! He's here somewhere."

"JACK!"

"Riley, I know it." Riley shook her head and started helping Jack. Some of the coffins were filled with parts, others with bodies missing parts, none were intact. Sweat beaded and ran freely down Riley's face. She kept an eye on the countdown feeling each blink of the LED as if it were a punch.

"Jack, there's only two minutes left." Riley cried. Jack didn't answer. She could see his lips moving, but couldn't hear what he said.

"HERE! MAC!" Jack screamed catching one of the boxes on his hip before it fell to the floor. Mac rolled against his side. Jack wanted to scream taking in how awful Mac looked.

"Jack!" Riley yelled. Jack bent and slid Mac onto his shoulders. Riley helped steady him. Jack shrugged Mac into the least painful position ignoring the agony tearing through his side. He held onto Mac with his right hand. With his left, he grabbed Riley's jacket and dragged her in his wake. Jack grimaced as he worked Mac through the hatch.

He pushed through pain and ran as fast as he could away from the jet. He and Riley reached the edge of the runway when it blew. The roar of metal shredding was deafening. Jack screamed as a hot hand knocked him forward ripping Mac from his arms. Jack reached out to grab his partner's broken body but all three of them rolled like tumbleweeds in the wake of the concussive force. Jack moaned, fighting to take in air everything fading until the world stopped shattering into tornados of debris.

"Mac? Ri?" Jack said coughing. Thick black smoke billowed over them. He could taste the greasy burnt kerosene smell of the jet fuel oozing in a flaming puddle from the plane. Jack rolled to his knees and crawled to Mac who laid unmoving to his left. "Riley?" Panic made his voice louder than normal, but he could barely hear it.

" 'm k." He heard Riley from a mile behind him. He turned relieved to see it was his hearing that made the distance, not Riley being flung over to hell and gone. Jack leaned forward crying out in agony. Freddy Kruger had borrowed Jason's chainsaw and was swinging it through Jack's entire chest. It was agony to breath. Stubborn worry kept him moving. Jack held his side. His T-shirt squished under his fingers wet with blood. Thankfully, Riley had a cut on her forehead and a narrow rivulet of blood dribbled down the middle of her face. He jaw had a dark smudge. Jack hoped it was from soot and not a bruise. Riley crawled toward Mac and reached him first. She leaned over Mac and tried to pull the shredded remains of his hospital gown over him.

Jack knelt beside her. He had only seen a glance of Mac's condition as he had left him behind. If he had seen what he saw now, Jack would never have left his side. And if they both survived, he may never again.

"Hey, kiddo. C'mon, brother. I know you're in there, right? You know there's no dying on my watch, right? Or ever." Jack's hands moved with practiced ease, but they shook. He forced himself to take in Mac's wounds. He focused on triage, what could he do now? But tears washed grit and grime from his face. The entire world vanished as he moved from cut to cut, bruise to bruise, then the feet…

Mac was pasty white, his flaccid skin marred by black fingerprint smudges and slices of torn and missing skin. Almost every inch seemed to be dribbling blood. At least it wasn't gushing. Jack hoped the slowing flow was from clotting and not lack of blood. Jack kept a finger on Mac's weak and fast pulse. Bones in the kid's chest and sides moved with light pressure but he didn't feel any sharp edges of broken bone sticking out. Mac's breathing hitched. For the briefest second, the electric of Mac's blue eyes rose like a sunset.  
"There you are, that's it, brother. No quitting now." Jack hissed tapping Mac's cheek. Mac was out again. Mac's legs were masses of torn blue flesh. Jack froze staring at Mac's ankles and feet. He had no idea how to approach them. Mac's toes faced in different directions he had knuckles poking out on the top of his foot and his ankles were swollen. The flesh was blue-black. Jack couldn't find a pulse on the top of Mac's feet. Shit. Was Mac going to lose both feet? Jack felt dizzy, hot, and sick.

"Jack!" He turned and looked into Riley's pale bloody face. Her brown eyes were warm and hurting. He realized that she had been talking to him for awhile. Jack blinked and took in movement all around him. Everything was muffled. Paramedics, police and a hundred other uniforms swarmed around them and the remnants of the plane. Jack stared at them numbly. He hadn't heard the sirens. Riley grabbed his shoulder and said something. He blinked. Her voice was lost in the swirling blur that seemed to be rising from the ground around him. Jack felt wet on his pants. He looked down. Blood was now soaking his jeans. That wasn't good. Riley grabbed the shoulders of his jacket. Jack tried to offer her comfort but his body was suddenly as useful as a fist full of Jello. His head hurt when it bounced off the cement. He turned his head happy to see half a dozen paramedics working on Mac.

A warm hand turned his face. Jack blinked up at the fuzzy visage of three other paramedics. He opened his mouth to tell them they were wasting time, that Mac needed their help...that he was fine and….


	16. Chapter 16

Mac was surprised that he opened his eyes. He blinked for a moment thinking he'd dreamed the whole thing-Percy, the asylum, suffocating in the dark room, the coffin-all of it. The thought gave him a sliver of a second of relief, then the pain in his body washed through his brain. He gasped.

"Hey, kiddo. Take it easy, brother." Jack. Mac let out a deep breath and blinked. He was in an open hospital room, pre-surgery? Blood hung pouring into him. They were only one of a hundred tubes and wires hooked up to him. Mac blinked, his heavy eyes wanted to close, retreat back into sleep. He was warm...too warm.

"Are ya gonna stay awake this time, bud?" Jack's voice was soft, gentle even. Mac felt his partner's familiar touch as the older man brushed bangs away from his sweaty forehead.

"Where?" Mac managed licking his lips. A warm calloused hand rested on Mac's shoulder. Mac followed it to Jack's face. Jack had looked better. He was ghost white and covered with bruises and a face full of cuts. Mac recognized them as secondary blast injuries. He frowned. Jack had been too close to an explosion. "You 'k?"

Jack let out a deep breath and offered a weak smile.

"I will be once we get you situated."

"Huh?"

"They're trying to get you stabilized for surgery, brother." Mac frowned mentally scanning his body. He hurt everywhere but he didn't think anything needed surgery. Jack sighed and looked away from Mac's confusion.

"Sur'gy?"

"Your feet, kiddo." Mac scowled, he didn't feel anything...it all came back in a flash. The vice, the squeezing, the snapping… Mac felt Jack grab his shoulders before he'd known he was sitting up. Everything teeter-tottered around him. His chest hurt. His back was broken glass. He fought to breathe.

Jack leaned forward moving his hip farther onto Mac's bed. Mac's face was a sickly ivory color. His swollen eyes peeked out of bruised flushed skin. Jack tried to guide Mac back into bed.

"Easy, brother. You're gonna be ok. They just need to get your blood counts and stuff up before they can go in and fix all those little bones. Did you know fingers and toes are the fastest healing bones in the body?" Mac stared at him blankly a long minute then slowly broke into a wry smile. The two looked at each and laughed. Mac moaned curling forward, bracing his belly with an arm. Jack pushed his elbow against his side.

He'd only woken up a little while ago himself. He'd gotten a pint of blood, sewed up, then eaten. Bozer had gotten his stitches then had gone with Riley to get Matty and the others from the airport. They were on their way to Holcomb. The FAMs were meeting them with a helicopter then coming to get him at Mass Gen and they were going to hunt Lubeman down in whatever rat's nest he was hiding in.

Mac leaned forward wrapping his hands around Jack. Jack returned the hug with his eyes closed. Mac didn't shake as much as he did in the dark room, but he was as warm as a radiator. Jack rubbed Mac's upper back wincing at the swollen knots he felt bunching under his hands. He gently pushed Mac back. Mac was fighting valiantly to keep his eyes open, but it was a battle he was destined to lose. Mac yawned and squinted up at the IVs hanging over his head.

"Yes, they gave you a sedative and pain medicine. They put the hot blankets on to keep circulation open to your feet until they operate." Mac's breathing hitched and he looked at Jack eyes wide. Jack frowned. He wished he could tell Mac for sure he wouldn't lose his lower legs, but he couldn't. Mac studied Jack's face and nodded. He closed his eyes. Jack could see his Adam's apple bob. Jack reached out and pulled up the blankets. They sat listening to the rhythmic grinding of the IV pumps, beeping of monitors, and distant sound of feet moving in the next room. Jack looked up seeing a surgical nurse standing at the door.

She wore surgical scrubs and nodded.

"Is there anything you need?" Jack asked. Mac's gaze snapped up to him.

"Where are you going?" Mac's voice raised an octave with barely suppressed panic. Jack pushed the kid's bangs back again.

"You know I don't do well with boredom. You're gonna be in surgery in a few minutes. You'll be sound asleep while I go give Lubeman everything he deserves." Mac smiled at the deadly knife in Jack's cold voice. He held out a hand. Jack bumped his fist. "I'll be here when you wake up, ok?" Mac took a deeper breath as he fought a yawn. He nodded.

"Don't get killed." Mac murmured closing his eyes.

"That's the plan." Jack said around a lump in his throat. The nurse came in and began to do medical stuff to Mac's plethora of equipment surrounding him. Jack stood up to get out of the way, but didn't want to leave. Tears burned his eyes. He was afraid this would be the last time he'd see his brother alive. After the nurse nudged him aside the third time, Jack got the idea. He nodded at the nurse and left. He leaned against the wall, head ducked and eyes closed taking deep breaths.

Jack let out one final deep breath then looked up a dark look in his eyes. Yup, Lubeman was definitely going to pay for every stitch, bruise, cut and pain a hundred fold, and then some, if Jack had his way.

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Jack looked like crap. Matty studied one of her two best agents carefully. If she thought he'd listen for a second, she would order him to stand down. As pale and exhausted he looked, the straight line of his shoulders and bunching of his fists told her he was ready to kick some serious ass. Matty turned hiding a smile. She didn't want Jack to get a swollen head, but she was going to do everything in her power to make it happen.

"How's Mac?" Bozer asked. His bruises had swollen his eyes nearly shut and he sounded like he spoke around marbles. Jack rubbed his face with both hands.

"They're taking him back now." There was a moment of silence as if they all paused to send a quick prayer to whomever would listen.

"Ok, we have a job to do. Riley?" Matty said. They all sprawled in a large staff education room. Riley sat cross legged on one of the rectangular tables. She glanced up from her laptop and huffed in frustration.

"I've been through this three times. The FBI, Homeland, Air Marshals, and anyone else walking by has raided all of Lubeman's operations across the entire country, nothing about where he went."

"Did that nurse talk?" Jack asked leaning against the wall, gratefully accepting a steaming cup of coffee Cage handed him. He normally didn't drink coffee but he needed something to keep him going.

"She did," Cage said with satisfaction, "she said that Lubeman had a hide out near Braintree but she'd never been there and had no idea where it was. She did say it's completely off the grid."

"Are you sure she's telling the truth?" Bozer asked. Cage narrowed her eyes, "Sorry...no disrespect meant, Cage, but New England isn't that big. Braintree is a stone's throw away…"

"And you want to what? Go drive around until we see a Slice 'n Dice truck?" Matty growled. Bozer shook his head saying nothing.

"Where's Maggie?" Jack asked. Everyone stared at him. Jack smiled, "He's her baby's daddy, right?" Matty, Cage, and Riley shared a sour look Jack didn't understand. He missed something. He glanced at Bozer and saw the younger man didn't get it either.

"Their relationship wasn't...consensual." Riley said looking like she was going to puke. Jack's jaw dropped.

"He…? That fucking son of a bitch!" Jack said automatically taking a step forward his body tightened as if he was going to launch a set of punches. Matty stepped in front of him and put out a hand. Jack startled back, he hadn't realized he'd moved.

"We can just add it to the bill he's wracking up." Matty said. Jack heard a sympathetic warmth in Matty's voice that did nothing to soften the stone coldness of her eyes. Jack nodded and smiled. He suspected she was going to go Mama bear and the bad guys were going to learn first hand how she got the nickname Matty the Hun.

"Assuming we can find him." Bozer said wincing as he probed his swollen jaw. They were quiet a long minute. Jack frowned and began to pace something on the edge of his brain. The others noticed this, but didn't interrupt his thinking. He stopped and turned to Riley.

"Percy!"

"What?" Cage asked.

"Percy, Mac's friend. Mac told me how they met and why he dragged Mac into this mess. Mac said that Percy was the head of a gang...the 7s. They crossed the Irish mob and started disappearing."

"Sucked into Lubeman's body snatching system." Bozer added his eyes alight. Jack nodded.

"He also said that Lubeman had some juice in Boston." Jack said looking at Riley who was typing furiously. She looked up grinning.

"I found a cabin by the Monatiquot River. It's owned by a million shell companies all with ties to the Irish mob...and Governor Reynolds." Jack pulled out his Baretta and checked the ammo. Matty and Cage followed suit.

"Ok, where are we raiding?"


	17. Chapter 17

Cage slapped a mosquito intent on draining a quart of blood. She grimaced wiping the smear of red on her pants. Jack chuckled at her elbow. She shot him a glare. The bugs ignored him. Either he was too low on blood or he tasted that bad. Cage smiled thinking it was the latter.

"They should be Massachusetts's state bird." Jack murmured. Cage gritted her teeth and continued slogging through the swamp. The green layer of algae on the water helped the group of five attackers blend into the reeds, grasses and brush around them. Her boots sank into the slime and dirt almost up to her knees. Her skin crawled knowing that she could be swimming with anything from perch to water moccasins and the smell...Cage wrinkled her nose not willing to pull apart the almost physical earthly smell to identify its components. She shoved plants and brush aside as she held her M5 above her head. The brackish water came up to her chest.

Jack grunted following her. She watched him a moment out of the corner of her eye. Jack didn't complain during the hour long slow row boat ride in and didn't say a word as he followed her, but she knew his side had to be killing him and she shuddered to think what this mess they trudged through was doing to his wound.

She paused and leaned against a mossy boulder.

"I hear it." She said. Jack crouched beside her his eyes narrowed. Drowning out the frogs, bird calls and constant insect buzzing was the faint murmur of running water. He half turned and gestured with his hand. The three soldiers behind him nodded and silent as a turtle vanished into the surrounding foliage.

"Matty, we're going aground." Jack said.

"Acknowledged, we're ready when you give the word." They eased around the boulder and walked another ten feet before solid ground jutted at them. It looked like a pile of spongy sod floating on the water. Jack raised an eyebrow at Cage. Cage nodded. She laid her weapon on the damp ground and climbed out of the water covered with limp and clinging scrub. She took Jack's M5 and held out a hand helping him onto the relative dryness of the peat. Jack grunted and held his side as he crouched a long minute his eyes closed. Cage gathered her M5 her blue eyes constantly moving through the woods around them. She didn't say anything as Jack took several deep breaths. He bent and gathered his weapon. He grinned at Cage.

"Ladies first." He said. Cage smiled mischievously.

"If you insist, I'll be right behind you." Jack shot her a mock glare. He moved to step past her, she held him back with a hand on his shoulder. His glare became authentic.

"Cage, what the…" Samantha didn't wait but led the way through the tall reeds. Jack huffed and followed. Jack gasped as the branches of a fallen tupelo dug into his sore side. He put a hand out to steady himself and gritted his teeth to keep from crying out. Cage didn't pause or give any sign, but Jack knew she was looking out for him. He found it both reassuring and annoying.

Cage froze ducking low. Jack flattened beside her hissing as his tired body complained. From the small forest of grasses they watched a group of four guards creeping through a thicket of populars and hemlocks. Jack had to admit he was impressed. The four men moved silent as jaguars. Even the bullfrogs and birds in the area didn't stop their evening song as the men passed.

Like ghosts, they slid out of sight.

"Shit." Jack whispered. Cage nodded.

"Jack? What's wrong?" Riley asked over the com.

"Mercs, former special forces from the way they move." Cage answered.

"Do we need to abort?" Matty asked. Cage looked over at Jack who studied the land in front of them with narrowed eyes. He smiled.

"Now why would we want to do that?"

"Dalton? What's going through that thing you call a brain?" Matty said. There was no hiding the relief in her voice. Cage smiled. As much crap as she throws at Jack, Matty was actually close to the Delta. A closeness all of the other members of the team pondered but never asked about.

"Let's just say Mac'll be proud." Jack said. He glanced at the sky. It was hard to tell through the canopy above them, but they had less than an hour before dark.

"Jack?" Matty demanded.

"Matty, just be ready to move when you get my signal."

"Your signal? Wha-?" Jack tuned her out and turned to Cage.

"Smell that?" He said picking his way carefully through the thick plants. Their boots squished in the muck of peat and rotting plants.

"I can't...Jack it all smells bad." Cage hissed falling into step behind the older man. Out of habit she stepped in his footsteps. Jack accidentally slid into wet holes twice but was able to regain his balance before he fell back under the water. He turned inland and crouched. Cage gagged and covered her nose, "What is that?" Jack grinned and pointed at the water close to the edge of the peat. Cage looked and saw the thick brown and green water bubble as if it were boiling. She leaned back. It was thick with the stench of rotten eggs.

"See that there is a pocket of swamp gas. Mac could give you all the fancy terms and whatnot, but that doesn't matter. You know what does?" Cage shook her head automatically returning Jack's infectious grin.

"No, Jack, so tell me?"

"It explodes." Cage's eyes widened and she stared at the bubbling swamp.

"So what are we going to do? Set the whole swamp on fire? Braintree would not appreciate that." Cage growled. Jack reached into a pocket of his TAC gear at the small of his back. He pulled out two sealed plastic baggies. One held money, gum and matches, the other held two protein bars. He emptied them pocketing the items and sharing the protein bars with Cage. Cage had to work to break down the hard nutbar and the crunch seemed loud in the gathering gloom.

Jack held the bags open facing down over the bubbles. Slowly the bag puffed and filled. Jack waited until the plastic was pushed out completely before he slid the plastic zipper closed. He carefully set it aside and repeated the process with the second bag.

"I'm impressed, Mac teach you that?"

"Nah, I hung out around the bayous down south for awhile. C'mon we don't have long before that gas leaks out." Cage nodded. They moved as fast as they could onto more solid land. Finally they broke free of the floodplain and hit solid ground. Cage breathed out in relief finally able to run full out through shin high grass. Jack followed the sound of running water. He drew up and crouched moving slowly as they neared a small dam. Water was trickling through a closed cement lock. The bridge was stained with moss and green vines. It wasn't tall or long maybe ten feet high and double that across. On the other side of it a wide esuary that smelled of brine seeped into the edge of woodlands.

"We're gonna blow the dam." Jack whispered. Cage frowned at him. She turned surprised by how dark it had gotten over the past few minutes. Deeper into the timber she could see the bright lights of Lubeman's cabin. Her hackles raised. She could not see any lights indicating the guard's locations. She smiled.

"You want to blind them." Jack frowned at her a little peeved she'd stolen his thunder. Cage patted him on the back, "That's smart Jack." Jack grinned, all was forgiven. He didn't mind being underestimated, it usually helped him take others by surprise, but now and again it was nice to remind everyone that Mac wasn't the only one with a brain in the dynamic duo.

Jack slowly walked across the slippery top of the damn. His feet felt frozen by the time he reached the controls of the lock. Jack's teeth began to chatter. The northeast was cool in the summer and the misty marsh seemed to hang around him like a frozen shall. Jack shook his head. A little longer, he begged his body, just a little longer then R and R, promise.

Jack worked quickly tying the bags to the rusted hinges and lever so they remained upside down. He carefully unzipped their openings and took two long steps away. He pulled out and lit a match. Pausing so it didn't blow out in the wind from the water movement, Jack braced himself.

"What? Jack what do you think you're-" Jack ignored Cage. He flicked the match at the baggies and dove for the water of the estuary. He winced at the sting of the saltier dirty water as he dove the twenty feet to the bottom. Jack grabbed a fallen sappling to hold himself underwater as he turned in time to see the water above him light up with the yellow orange of an explosion. Jack tried to hold onto the sapling to ride out the sudden undertow but the rapid eddys caught him in a tumble faster than the spin cycle on a washing machine. Jack didn't know which way was up.

He tried to get reoriented and turned rightside up but everything was black. His lungs pleaded for release. Bubbles crept out of the side of his mouth, he could feel a blackness darker than the night water seep around him. He was dimly aware of slamming into a cement wall and losing the remnants of his air before everything faded away.

"Jack!" Cage yelled diving forward ignoring the chilling water flowing over her body. She saw a flash of movement and reached out with both hands. She pulled crying out with strain. She had a moment of elation realizing that she'd snagged Jack's TAC vest in her hands. Then the world lit up around her and things went to shit just as quickly.

"I was wondering when you would get here." Jason Lubeman said standing amidst a group of black clad sentries. Cage gritted her teeth the tendons standing out in her neck with the effort of keeping Jack's head above water.

"Matty! We're…!" Cage was silenced by a riffle slamming into the side of her head. Her body spasmed. She flopped forward unable to control her muscles. She could only watch helplessly as Jack was sucked under the churning water. JACK! She silently screamed as everything winked out in a blur of blackness and pain.


	18. Chapter 18

"Cage, the paths to the cabin were washed out by the dam breaking. It'll be 30 minutes before we can get an air strike, will you be ok until then?" Cage moved her swollen jaw and tasted blood.

"I guess I'll have to be." She muttered glaring at the circle of black suited flunkies around her.

"Acknowledged." Cage could hear the worry, anger and frustration in Matty's voice.

"I'll be fine." Cage said forcing herself to sit up straight. The men gave no indication that they heard her speak to herself. That worried Samantha. It meant they were little more than mindless henchmen. It made sense, she supposed. In an organization that literally treated their victims like meat, what did they care if she seemed crazy.

Cage ignored them a minute to take in the room she'd found herself in when she woke up. Lubeman's goons had hauled her from her narrow perch on the crumbling dam. She had fought with everything she had. Cage smiled, she had sent at least three to the hospital before they had beaten her into unconsciousness. It had served its purpose. It had given Jack time to swim away, if he hadn't drowned. Cage felt a lump in her throat. She and Jack hadn't gotten along at first, but when she'd proven her loyalty to the odd Phoenix family, he'd been the one to pull her in with open arms whether she wanted to or not. He had become a "crazy uncle" to her.

Honestly of all the team he understood her better than the others. He knew what it was to fight as special forces-the adrenaline high, the satisfaction of seeing your enemy broken at your feet. They were the fighters of the group. The others could fight, if they had to, but she and Jack had no hesitation about killing the enemy if needed. Cage chose to believe Jack was too ornery to die by drowning. Bar fight? Maybe. Protecting Mac? Definitely. Being knocked out and drowning in a swamp? Not damn likely.

Lubeman's cabin looked like a decrepit weather-worn hut on the outside, the inside was a different story. A fire burned in a man-sized marble fireplace. The walls looked like they were made of thick logs that had been polished to a gleaming maple color. The carpet was a rich burgundy as was all of the leather couches and chairs except the one she was tied to. She sat on an old straight back chair that would have been used as lawn furniture in the '50s. It was solid iron, immovable and breakable. The handcuffs pulled her arms painfully backlinking her wrists to the legs of the chair. Her ankles were similarly bound to the back legs of the chair. As Jack would say, she was hogtied for reals.

Cage opened her mouth. She vaguely remembered a sledgehammer fist slamming into the side of her face. Most of her cheek on that side was going to have a dark bruise and she was pretty sure she already had a black eye. When she'd first woken up she'd thought her jaw had been broken. It was sore and stiff but loosened up the more she worked it.

She stared at the fire a long minute lost in thought. What did she know about Lubeman? Even while heading a lucrative cross country empire he chose to go through the motions of being a doctor. God-complex-he thought he was above everyone and had power over all those around him. That explained why his underlings didn't communicate. He would be very volatile at any opposition to his power.

Samantha closed her eyes and mentally braced himself. He was going to be almost unhinged with rage. Difficult to manage, but not impossible. Why had he tortured Mac but not Jack? Easy answer he saw Mac as valuable, someone that was powerful enough he wanted to send a message by crippling him. Cage closed her eyes, her heart skipping at the memory of Mac's feet. She shoved the painful memory away. There was nothing she could do to help Mac right now.

Jack he ignored. He saw no threat in Jack. Cage smiled the picture coming fully formed. Mac was seen as a threat to Lubeman because he was friends with Percy who crossed him. They escaped under Libeman's very nose and took Maggie Blue with them. Cage had no doubt he saw Maggie as a trophy. Cage didn't know anything about Maggie's past but figured her family had crossed Lubeman at sometime so Maggie was held as a pawn just like Heaven and Amberle were. He obviously didn't connect Jack to Mac. Maybe he thought Jack was just a cop watching over the kid. The big question was, how would he see Cage? Lubeman was going to torture Bozer and Jack rescued him. Cage squared her shoulders bracing herself for the worst. There was no way he wouldn't know she wasn't part of whatever organization he thought was after him. Ruthless, sadistic, paranoid, God-complex, and unstable from rage. Wonderful.

Like an actor entering on cue, Lubeman strode through the front door. Cage didn't think this cabin had more than this one room and a bathroom. A place to hide out. Did he have a torture room in the basement? Cage swallowed and took even breaths trying to slow her hopping heartbeat. She looked at the man's feet and slumped her shoulders.

"Hello, my dear. Are you ready to talk?" Cage waited until Lubeman grabbed her sore jaw and yanked her head up painfully before she met his gaze. She slid her eyes to the side and forced herself to show fear instead of the anger she truly felt.

"Wh...wh...at do you wa...ant to know?" Cage managed to squeeze out a few tears. Stage lessons in University were finally paying off. Lubeman grinned and released her chin. Samantha dropped her eyes and let out a deep sigh of relief that she didn't entirely have to fake.

"Where's the blonde?" Cage looked up a picture of confusion. She managed to make tears flow. She sniffed and with an Oscar-worthy performance began to sob.

"I...I don't know anything! I live in Braintree, this cop came into the gas station I work at and...and he made me come out here, made me show him the way through the swamp. M...my family had an old mill upstream...please don't hurt me. Please?" Cage closed her eyes and put more shaking and breathing behind her sobs.

"We got you covered, Cage. Stay strong." Matty's voice in her ear was a warm blanket of comfort. Soon, they'd get her out soon. She clung to that. Cage leaned her head forward and shook it a little so the hair pulled out of the bun she'd started with would fall across her face. She watched Lubeman through her bangs.

He studied her. Cage slowly tapered off her tears. He imagined him a master psychiatrist? He was probably trying to read her. Cage thought he'd be too arrogant to check her story. The question was how would he act thinking another lead to MacGyver had failed.

Lubeman's jaw clenched. He whirled and leaned against the mantle over the fire. He rubbed his face and turned to the smallest of the goons.

"Where's Tabitha now?"

"She was pulling up to Boston General the last time she checked in." Lubeman grinned and turned to Samantha.

"I'm so sorry to bother you. I'm sorry that cop dragged you here. It's just as well as he drowned. He was very unprofessional." He nodded at the closest underling. Cage didn't have to fake her terror as the man pulled out a Desert Eagle .50 caliber. She vaguely thought that using such a huge gun was definitely a sign of over compensation as she closed her eyes and prepared to die.

The gunshot echoed off the thick walls loud enough to reach the far ends of the swamp.

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Bozer leaned his elbows on his thighs and stared at Mac wondering how he felt staring at his best friend in the hospital bed. Mac had gone through the first of what would be many surgeries. This one had been to repair the bones and joints enough so that they were mostly in place and not in danger of severing any major blood vessels or nerves. Bozer closed his eyes and rubbed his face.

He couldn't see Mac's feet through the surgical boots on both feet, but the image of the misshapen bones would haunt him the rest of his days. Or nights. Bozer knew this would be added onto the TV station that played horrors nonstop in his nightmares. Before he knew what Mac did for a living, Bozer had always wondered why his friend had such terrible dreams and night terrors. Now he knew.

Working mostly in the lab, Bozer didn't have near the emotional crap that Mac and Jack had to deal with, but he definitely was racking up some of his own. Fake Zito gutting him was a popular one. Murdoc was a marquee star. Finding Mac dead after he had been kidnapped, beaten, shot and a hundred other things Bozer's imagination conjured, played frequently. But the most unwelcome guests to his brain's nightscape were the bodies. The broken, shot, and dead bodies of friends and enemies alike. This was worse than all of those put together.

Mac's breath hitched and his forehead wrinkled in pain. Bozer leaned forward and took his friend's hand. It felt warm and slick with sweat.

"Mac? You in there, bro?" Bozer managed around the tennis ball in his throat. Mac moaned and slowly turned toward Bozer's face. He squinted his eyes and raised his hand to rub at his face. Bozer captured it so the movement wouldn't dislodge the multiple IVs. Mac's eyes cracked open and slowly opened. He blinked at Boze, frowned and took in the room. His mouth moved and he licked his dry lips.

"Where's Jack?" Mac's voice was weak and scratchy. Bozer smiled and leaned closer.

"He's off finishing that Lubeman dude. What am I chopped salami?" Mac managed a weak grin and looked at Mac. Bozer squeezed Mac's hand. He appreciated the effort Mac put into hiding his pain, but it was pointless. Bozer had known Mac since before he felt the need to hide his pain. He could see it in Mac's eyes as clearly as sky writing on a clear day.

Mac tried to turn on his side only to softly cry out in pain sucking in a deep breath. Bozer stood up and stared at Mac panic in his eyes.

"What do you need? What do I do to make you better?" After breathing through the pain, Mac eased back and looked at Bozer with heavy eyes.

"It's...k. Relax, Boze."

"Relax my ass, do you have any idea how crappy you look?" Mac raised an eyebrow at the accusation in Bozer's voice. Bozer stood up and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, bro. It's just that…" Mac weakly waved a hand at his friend. He cleared his throat and winced.

"I know." Mac murmured his voice stronger. He reached over to raise the head of his bed. Bozer leapt to hit it first. Mac gave him a wry half smile and let him do it. Mac closed his eyes and Bozer could his roomie's throat move.

"You gonna puke?" Without opening his eyes Mac shook his head.

"Dizzy." He opened one eye and glared at Bozer when Bozer let out a snort of laughter.

"No, sorry, man, but being dizzy is the least of your problems right now." Mac forced both eyes open and looked down at his feet with a frown. They burned with pins and needles. He guessed whatever nerve had been pinched had been freed. Mac felt a pang of fear. It showed in his eyes as he turned to Bozer. Before Mac could say a word, Bozer answered the unasked question.

"Doc's say they're gonna probably be fine but it's gonna take a few surgeries." Mac stared at Bozer a long minute. He didn't like the "probably" or "few". He thought of the vice and pain. Mac's heart sped up and he closed his eyes turning away lost in waves of non-physical pain. Boze carefully sat on the edge of Mac's bed and grabbed Mac's hand. Mac squeezed it as if it were a lifeline keeping him from going under water.

"Hey, Mac, we're gonna getcha through this, ok? You know I ain't leaving and I think we'd have to hire a couple armies to pull Jack away." Mac smiled and rubbed his eyes with his other hand. He glared at the IV's and followed the tubing to the bags bulging over his arm. He met Bozer's eyes.

"They mention when I can go home?" Bozer laughed. Mac looked at him puzzled. Bozer raised his eyebrows and laughed again.

"You're really serious? Dude, your feet were crushed into chicklets!" Mac winced at the metaphor. Bozer lost his amusement, "Sorry, terrible metaphor. When everyone gets back we're gonna get you stable enough to fly then you're gonna be back at Phoenix." Mac's expression soured automatically. Bozer knew that look.

"Sally's not that bad, man. She takes care of you." Mac glared at Bozer with betrayal in his eyes. Bozer shook his head and leaned forward his face serious, "It's gonna be ok, Mac. Trust me, you'll see. It's just gonna take awhile." Mac huffed and let out a long sigh. He fought his eyelids but was obviously losing the fight.

"You should get some sleep." Bozer said standing up. Before Mac could protest, a nurse knocked. She held a pile of pillows and blankets.

"I'm sorry, I have to change the bed. Could you step out?"

"Sure, I'm gonna get some coffee down the hall, ok Mac?" Mac half asleep nodded. Bozer patted his shoulder then left the room. Mac relaxed against the bed. A brief pang of unease crossed his mind, but he was too tired to chase it. He thought he heard the nurse say something but wasn't sure.

Then he couldn't breathe. Mac flailed awake. She held a pillow over his face. He thrashed and fought weakly but couldn't move her. Where's Bozer? Where's Jack? He desperately thought as his lungs burned and his mouth filled with cotton pillowcase. He arched against her weight ignoring the agony of moving his battered body, but nothing dislodged the pillow. His head was spinning and inner darkness joined the suffocating shadow of the pillow.

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WATERBOARDING! Jack raised his head out of the water and sputtered in water. He swung at the hands that held him...Jack frowned confused when his fists hit only air. He wiped water out of his face panting in air while simultaneously gagging out water.

"What the…?" Jack shook his head and took in his situation and laughed in disbelief. He remembered the swirl of the water, the pain of impact then nothing. He wondered how the hell he hadn't drowned. And how...Jack shook his head glad the others weren't there. They would be laughing their asses off. He dangled two feet above the water held by his belt at the small of his back. Somehow it had snagged on a low bare branch as wide as his wrist. Jack always knew God had a sense of humor and this one time he'd been luckier than Madagascar. Jack frowned. Or not. He whirled in a circle. How the hell was he supposed to get down?

"Cage?" He hissed. Nothing. A new fear ignited in the pit of his stomach. "CAGE?" Nothing. Shit.


	19. Chapter 19

Bozer smiled at the elegant long necked nurse that handed him a steaming cup of coffee. Her deep brown eyes were the personification of compassion and amusement.

"So...I'm still trying to cast a movie I'm making and you would be a beautiful addition to the cast." Bozer said, his voice dreamy. He noticed her nametag. "Amne." Bozer repeated it swirling it around his mouth, "That's beautiful."

"It means safety in Swahili." Amne had a nasal Southie accent. Bozer grinned. She leaned forward flirting back, "So who else is in you cinema masterpiece?" Bozer cleared his throat and looked down itching the side of his nose.

"Well, no one yet but it is in the works...I promise!" Amne shook her head and walked away. Bozer watched her cross the nurse's station his shoulders slumping. Damn. He sipped his coffee and nodded. He may not be going home with Amne's number but he did get a damn fine cup of coffee. He turned and stretched as he walked back to Mac's room. He was surprised to see the light on. Mac must still be awake.

"Mac, you would not believe the beauty…" Bozer froze three steps inside the door. He saw the nurse he'd left in Mac's room holding a pillow over Mac's face. Mac wasn't moving. Bozer let out a bellow of anger and jumped forward. He threw the hot coffee into the woman's face. She screamed and pulled back wiping at the boiling fluid burning her face. Bozer reached out and yanked the pillow off Mac's head.

"Help!" He yelled.

"You son of a bitch!" The woman yelled. Bozer whirled. She kneed him in the groin and slammed the phone across his head. Bozer fell on all fours. The witch tried to kick him in the gut. Bozer sat back and grabbed the sharply heeled foot, twisted it, and shoved her back. She caught her balance and turned back to him in a second but it had given him enough time to grab the call light. He yanked it out of the wall.

Instantly lights flashed and a loud siren whooped outside the door. Bozer heard feet pounding down the hall. He had one second of elation before a stylish foot slammed across his bruised face. Bozer fell back. Everything rippled around him. He couldn't believe he was getting beat up by a girl.

"You son of a bitch." The fake nurse growled. Her voice was slurred by swollen lips that refused to form words. She raised the phone ready to smash it into Bozer's head. Suddenly her head was yanked back. She dropped the phone in surprise. Amne spun her and slammed her into the hard tile face first, "You…" Amne twisted the woman's arm up her back enough to hurt.

"Nobody fucks with my patient." She growled. Police came trotting in. Amne glanced at Bozer who looked up at her with saucers for eyes.

"Marry me." He squeaked. She smiled at him and ran to Mac's side. Bozer blinked and shook his head wincing at the pain in his already beaten head. He pulled himself to standing, "So is that a yes? Bozer asked rubbing a knot on his head. Bozer's mind cleared and he took in how pale Mac looked and how his mouth hung open.

"No...Mac." Bozer whispered in horror. Hot tears burned down his face. He didn't care. Mac's hand felt cold, dead in his hand. He looked at Amne begging with his eyes. She bent over Mac checking his pulse and reconnecting wires and tubes that had been pulled apart during the scuffle. She whirled to leave and paused in mid step she grabbed both of Bozer's shoulders and offered a smile.

"I'm going to have the doc check him over, but I think he's ok." Bozer collapsed on the side of Mac's bed and put a hand on the blonde's knee. He saw Amne turn off the alarm and form in conference with other nurses and doctors that came running in. Security dragged the fake nurse away. Bozer noted then ignored it.

"I'm so so sorry, Mac. I ain' going nowhere until Jack's back. I pinky swear." He said softly as he lifted Mac's limp pinkie and wrapped his own around it. He leaned forward and swiped at tears trying to calm his panicked heart. How could he have left his best friend at the mercy of a killer? He shifted his hand until he held Mac's in both. I'm so sorry. He silently repeated over and over.

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Jack reached out and grimaced. He only saw one thing to do. He closed his eyes. He always wished Mac was with him,except when he was being tortured or whatever. He never wanted Mac to be anywhere near a possibility of being hurt, but Jack sure could use that ginormous brain right now. He shook his head.

"Lucky my ass." Jack growled. The water below him had continued to sink lower and lower. It was now only a couple of inches deep. Even in the dark night he could make out the sharp tops of stones and sticks aiming up at him. This was going to hurt. Jack flexed his hands. He couldn't stop shivering. He sucked in his gut yanked at his belt then fell. Jack had enough time to protect his face with his arms then he landed with a wet slurp. Jack cried out in pain. He felt skin rip in several places. A particularly sharp stone dug into his sternum pushing his TAC vest and gun into his chest. Jack rolled over gasping in air. He felt bruised everywhere. Jack forced his aching body to move. He swayed to his feet and lurched toward the washed out haddocks along the side of the pond.

"At least It'll warm me up." He gasped. He pulled out his Baretta as he stumbled up the soggy grass and splattered his way toward the dry forest in the general direction of Lubeman's cabin. He pulled his comm out and tipped his head to the side. He tried to dry his ear canal with his pinky finger. He blew on the comm. They were water resistant. Jack didn't hold out much hope. He doubted the washing machine of mud he'd swirled in was covered in the warranty. He shoved it back in his ear.

"Cage? Matty?" He heard static and thought he heard a voice, but it was too garbled. Crap. Jack pulled it out and tucked it in a pocket in his TAC vest. He cleared the muck out of his Baretta as much as he could. He would lose some of the penetrating power of his pistol; he could work with that. As soon as his boots hit firm ground, he broke into as fast a jog as he could in the dark woods.

Jack occasionally tripped but his hunting instincts kicked in and his body began to warm and melt into the darkness like a creature born to it. He had no idea how long it took him to reach the trees surrounding the grey weathered cabin. If it wasn't for the big guys in suits standing at every door and window and flickering light shining out the narrow windows, Jack would have assumed it was an abandoned building. No wonder no one could find this guy. Jack eased up to a wide oak and knelt closer to the ground staying in the darkest shadow.

Jack breathed fast but easy. His muscles were loose and he could feel the strength of added adrenaline dump into his system. He knew it wouldn't last.

There were four guys on the side facing him. Jack assumed the same number would be on the other side of the small building. Jack knew the walls would be thick and reinforced and assumed the glass was reinforced polycarbonate. As long as he didn't make too much noise, those inside shouldn't even notice anything going on out here. Jack smiled. Just the way he liked it.

He kept back from the light and crept in a circle. A flat-topped blonde yawned and turned at the loud cry of a barn owl. Jack pounced. The man was muscular, but it was all in his upper body. Jack put out a leg and brought the man to the ground. The man whoofed as he hit. Jack kept moving he slashed out with the butt of his baretta catching the guy across his prominent Adam's apple. The man's eyes widened and his hands scratched at his ruined throat. He managed a gurgling moan. Jack gracefully rolled to his feet and melted back into the shadows close to the cabin's rough wall.

"Whatch doin'?" A guttural voice said. Jack didn't hear the mountain that came to lean over his buddy move. He moved with the grace of a man a quarter of his size. Two others flanked him. Jack braced himself. He waited until the big man dropped to one knee trying to see his friend's face. Jack saw one of the guys in the back reach for a flashlight.

Jack slinked to his side, grabbed the wrist reaching for the torch slamming his head into the man's nose when he turned surprised. Jack yanked the flash light out. It was a heavy tactical steel flashlight. Jack smacked the guy on the side of the head when he listed to his side. Jack cranked the flashlight under the man's chin and yanked back and to the side. There was no mistaking the crunching snap of his windpipe collapsing and the vertebrae at the axis of his skull twisting apart. Jack dropped the corpse and stepped to the side avoiding a shotgun swinging at him.

Jack had no idea why the guy didn't just shoot him but was never one to look the gift horse of incompetence in the mouth. He stepped back, grabbed the man's outstretched wrist and snapped his shoulder up as he dragged the man's arm down. The man squealed in agony as the bones of his elbow separated. Jack didn't waste movement. He twirled the guy forward then slammed the flashlight across the back of the man's neck. He heard a crunch but didn't know if he'd killed the guy or not. The point was he was down and not moving. Good enough.

Jack knew he was out of time. A giant hand grabbed him by the collar of his wet jacket and slammed him against the cabin wall hard. Air whumphed out of Jack and he lost hold of his Baretta. He shook his head trying to shake away black bubbles that bounced in front of his eyes. The man twisted and slammed Jack sideways to the ground. Jack cried out at the agony in his side. The man said something Jack ignored. He felt himself turned and slammed back first into the wall hard enough to crack the weathered wooden shingles. Jack felt his knees weaken.

The man was about to shout for his buddies. Jack knew if he did that it was lights out for one Delta. That would be plumb disgraceful. Jack jammed the flashlight in the man's face. The giant roared and stepped back as Jack fired it into life. Blinded, the man staggered back. Jack flopped to the ground dizzy and out of breath. He reached out a hand for a weapon...anything. He gave a silent prayer of thanks to his Dad when his hands circled the shot gun dropped by dude #3. Jack rolled his knees. He swung the shotgun with everything he had and snapped the giant's knee. Jack moved to stand as the man fell. He should have known it wasn't going to be that easy.

The guard latched onto Jack's TAC vest and yanked him down. As he was forced to stoop, the giant's fist rammed the side of his head. Jack felt his jaw squeak and his teeth clicked shut painfully biting into his tongue. He sprawled backwards. The mountain held him close and pounded him again. Jack tasted more blood and knew his nose was broken for the hundredth time. He leaned back and let his knees collapse. Jack leaned forward with the giant's next pull and added his full body weight into his forward momentum. His knees crunching into the man's sternum. The man's arms fell to his side and the big man moaned.

Jack knew that wouldn't put him down. He also heard feet trudging his way. He glared at the guard. Then staggered off his chest and toward the side of the cabin. He grimaced as splinters poked his fingers as he ran his hand along the weathered wall. He held a hand over his middle and paused leaning into the niche between the stone chimney and an alcove in the back of the house. Jack wiped blood away from his face pausing to rest his cold damp sleeve against his face a long minute.

The goons didn't shout when they found their comrades. Jack could hear moans of pain and soft voices. It was more than a little disconcerting how good some of these guys were. Jack shook his head to clear it and winced as the world swam in a grey haze of pain for a long minute. He leaned on the stone taking slow deep breaths. He turned studying where he was. The alcove behind him held a window. Unlike the others on the front of the house, this one was only slightly more narrow than a normal window. It was frosted but Jack could see distant flickering light through it. He studied the chimney trying to get a floor plan in his head. Feet pounded toward him like a freight train. Shit.

Well, Jack thought with a grin. Time to be less subtle. He levered the shotgun and aimed both barrels at the window. The explosion of sound was deafening. Jack was pretty sure Matty could have heard it. The window spidered by didn't break. Shit. Jack racked the last rounds in the gun and again double barreled the window. It bowed in with a foot round hole in the middle. Close enough. Jack swung the shotgun as hard as he could and succeeded in pushing the half broken window inside the building. Jack jumped and had pulled himself half in when hands grabbed the back of his jacket. Jack held onto the side of the windows his arm muscles shaking his neck muscles standing out like cords.

Jack took a breath and leaned back quickly putting the flunky holding him off balance enough for Jack to reverse direction and twist out of the man's grip. Jack fell on his ass. He scooted back. He was in a large bathroom. He dropped the shotgun and scrambled for the cupboard under the sink hoping Lubeman was like most Americans and kept a chemical dump under his sink. He knew Mac could have brewed up something brilliant and explosive. Jack just grabbed the first spray can he laid his hand on and whirled to spray it in the face of a man who had almost cleared the window.

Bubbles foamed across the man's face getting into the guy's mouth and eyes. Jack wrinkled his nose. Toilet bowl cleaner. It worked. The man batted at his face screaming in agony. Jack scooped up the shotgun and headed toward the light. He saw the barrel of a Desert Eagle point his way and flattened to the tile. The big pistol boomed rattling his head and taking off Toilet bowl cleaner's face. Jack bounced up and rolled desperately for the door. The .50 cal boomed again and Jack felt something hard cave in the kevlar tiles on his left side. He moaned, falling flat on his side. He had trouble getting his breath and something had definitely broken in his side. Jack looked up to see the Desert Eagle crawl closer to his head.

Jack smiled. One thing most goons forget is there's a downside to pistols especially if the shooter had never had close quarters combat experience. He got too close. Jack rolled on his back swinging the shotgun like a baseball. It connected with the man's wrist just as the guy pulled the trigger. Jack lost hearing and sight in his left side. He grit his teeth and spun the shotgun back in the direction he'd started out from only this time lower. The goon's legs swept out from under him. He fell on his knees. Jack dropped the shotgun grabbed the .50 cal and twisted. The man yelped as Jack broke his trigger finger taking the gun away.  
In one fluid move, Jack turned the pistol and shot the guy's head off. Jack ignored the gore and pushed off the door frame until he was on one knee leaning against it. He shot another body coming through the bathroom window then pivoted taking in the other room.

Cage looked at him a pale relief under her layers of blue-black bruises. She gamely shot him a smile. Lubeman stood behind her and yanked her hair back. Cage growled and tried to shake free. The man pulled out a steak knife and held it to her throat. It wasn't a great weapon but Jack knew it would do the trick. He didn't let Lubeman settle into position, he raised the pistol in both hands snap aimed and shot the man in the head. Jack could almost see through the guy's skull as he fell backwards dead. Jack turned, but no one was crawling into the bathroom. He sank to the floor spitting blood and coughing. He felt chilled to the bone and exhausted.

"Jack! I'm so glad you're here, and you saved me!" Jack managed to make it to all fours. He tucked the massive pistol under the strap of his TAC vest and crawled to her side. Every movement was a solar flare of pain. His chest burned with every breath. He recognized the beginning stages of pneumonia.

After what felt like an Olympic event, Jack plopped down beside cage. He sat rasping in air.

"You don't...have to...sound...so...surprised." He panted at her. She gave him the most genuine smile he'd ever seen from her.

"Whatever, Jack. Get me loose." Jack studied the handcuffs and frowned. He looked up at Samantha.

"How?" He asked. Cage stared at him.

"Pick the locks." Jack snorted once in laughter. Cage felt anger flush her face, "Pick the damn locks, Jack."

"I don't know how to tell ya this, Cage. I don't know how."

"What? Everyone knows how! Riley, Mac…"

"I never grew up a delinquent, I never picked no locks. That's what Mac's for."

"All these years and you never watched him…"

"Look, sister, all these years I made sure he didn't get himself killed. I never worried about what the hell he was…"

"Jack! Get me out of here!" Cage roared in frustration.

"Look here, Missy…"

"Children, children!" Both agents looked up flummoxed as Matty followed a TAC team into the room.

"MATTY!"

"I am so glad to see you! Please, get me out of here." Cage spoke over Jack's elated shout. Matty pointed at the nearest agent.

"You, go get cuff keys." The man left at a run. Matty walked closer her eyes taking in her team. Her eyes softened. She put a hand on Cage's shoulder "You ok?" She asked softly. Samantha shook her head trying to flip her unruly mane out of her face.

"I'll be fine once I'm loose." Matty nodded and turned to Jack. Jack grinned at her, his eyes closed and he slumped unmoving to the ground.

"Get a medic in here, NOW!" Matty bellowed bending over Jack. Her eyes widened at the heat pumping from his body.

"Easy, Jack. I got you, just like always." Matty said in a tone she hadn't used in a long time. She could feel a hum through Jack's chest as he tried to answer her. Matty knelt beside him and took his hand.

"It's ok, Dalton. We're going home."


	20. Chapter 20

Jack roasted in fire. He writhed in pain trying to escape the heat. His body flooded with water, he was drowning. Familiar faces floated across his foggy vision-Doc Carl, Sally, Matty, Riley, Bozer. Occasionally a cool dampness embraced him, but always the fire returned. His side puffed swollen, full of pus, his organs slipped out onto the bed before splashing on the floor. All Jack could think about was the one face he didn't see. Repeatedly he called for Mac, he tried to go to him. Jack knew Mac needed him. The kid was in danger. Jack fought hands. He needed to see his brother. It occured to Jack he'd fallen into hell, the actual place not just a helter-skelter thing. If he did it wasn't surprising but oddly comforting. If Mac wasn't here, he must have gone to heaven. Jack couldn't buy it completely because worried Riley stayed at his side. There's no way his girl would be coming downstairs with him.

Then heavenly dew ran down his face burning out the flames. Jack opened his eyes exhausted. Riley sat beside him dabbing his forehead with a cool cloth. She grinned. Jack frowned and reached up a hand to swipe tears from her cheek. She winced as he brushed an abrasion on her cheekbone and a bruise along her temple.

"You 'k, kiddo?" Her eyes were sunken. She looked tired and drawn. Riley grabbed his hand in both of hers and leaned her cheek against it.

"I am now. You took your damn time waking up." She said sniffing. Jack took a deep breath. He was so tired. His eyes drifted to half mast. He forced them open again and moved to sit up, "What are you doing? Lay your ass back down in that bed!" Riley snapped holding his shoulders. Jack scanned the room before he gave into her strength, not that he had a choice.

"Where's Mac?" He asked. Riley smiled sadly.

"He's in surgical ICU." Jack's eyes widened and he moved to pull the covers off. Riley let out an exasperated huff and pulled them out of his hands. They both glared at each other.

"I have to see him." Jack growled. It would have been a lot more menacing if his voice wasn't so weak.

"You need to rest." Riley snarled back. Their wills clashed in a silent battle. Jack sighed. Even if he wasn't so tired he knew Riley would always win. She could pout a sword right through his heart. He settled back.

"How is he?" Riley pulled the covers over Jack and smiled. She gently dabbed at his face with the damp cloth.

"For someone who's gone through everything he did, he's a rockstar." Jack smiled feeling some of his unease unclench. He expected no less. He paused studying Riley. The young woman darted her eyes away.

"And?"

"He's gonna be fine, Jack."

"Riley!" Riley huffed and held Jack's hand tight.

"You can't freak out." She said. Jack raised to his elbows ignoring the screaming of pain in his side.

"Riley?"

"Seriously, Jack. You've been really sick. Scary sick. You need to stay calm. Sally already said you can see him tomorrow if you stay calm. Promise me you won't freak out?" Jack closed his eyes and forced himself to relax back against his bed.

"With that prologue, it's a little late for that." Jack muttered. Riley offered a small smile and ran a hand across the side of his face. Jack stubbornly stared into her eyes.

"Lubeman's nurse came here and tried to kill Mac." Jack's face slid into a mask of rage. His body tightened. He was ready to go kill a nurse. He must have moved because Riley sat beside him and put a heavy hand on his sternum. Jack waited with a clenched jaw.

"Bozer and a nurse saved him, but no one knows how long he went without oxygen. He hasn't woken up yet and that's been three days." Jack's mouth dropped open.

"What are you saying, Riley?" Riley stared at the wall behind the head of the bed.

"If he doesn't wake up soon, they think he might have brain damage." There was a long tick of silence before Jack started to laugh. Riley looked at him as if he had brain damage. Jack sat down with a relaxed sigh.

"Jack, did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah."

"Do you understand what I said?" Jack rolled his eyes and took her small hand in his.

"I know my boy, Riley. There is no way that ginormous DIY brain ain't gonna fix itself. He's going to be fine. He'll wake up tomorrow, you'll see." Jack closed his eyes and drifted into sleep. Riley smiled.

"I hope you're right, old man."

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Pain. Why did he always have to slam into a cement wall of pain when he woke up? Mac moaned, his whole body moving as he tried to escape the bone-crushing agony. Unfortunately, this made things worse. His eyes snapped open and he reached out grabbing the first thing he got a grip on-a hospital gown.

"Hey, kiddo. It's ok, breathe willya?" Mac took in Jack's familiar face hovering over his. Mac opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't take in air. Panic pounded in his ears in step with his racing heart. Jack moved Mac's hand so the kid could squeeze it.

"C'mon, brother. I know it hurts but you have to breathe." Mac managed a tiny wheeze. "Damnit. ANGUS MACGYVER BREATHE!" Mac jumped at Jack's sudden bellow and automatically sucked in a deep breath. He closed his eyes, tears escaping from his squinting eyes but he managed to take another breath. He heard voices over his head but it took all of his focus to breathe.

"Sorry, brother, this is going to hurt. Keep breathing for me, 'k?" Before Mac could even process the words, hands grabbed his side and tilted him half onto his side. Pillows were stuffed behind his back. Mac forgot to breathe as the agony of broken glass filled his chest.

"C'mon, remember the deal? You breathe right?" Mac felt familiar hands gently rub his back. Mac managed a deeper breath and hissed in pain as he released it. Tilting helped. He felt a warm rush in his wrist then the relaxing fuzz of pain medication. Mac relaxed not minding the fog coiling his brain in a marshmellow cocoon of comfort. He smiled in relief and managed to look up into Jack's worried face. Mac blinked. His brother did not look well. Jack was paper white, the growth on his chin looked like it had been scrawled on by a kindergartener. The older man's body slumped with fatigue and achiness. In short, his partner looked about to drop.

"Jk, you'k?" Mac managed through lips that protested against his commands. Jack smiled.

"I am now that you remembered how to breathe. I thought you were the brains, kiddo. Why do I have to keep teaching you the basics?" Mac snorted with laughter then curled forward at a spasm of pain. Mac waved away the panic that flared in Jack's eyes.

"S'mtimes gotta...basics." Jack could barely hear Mac's sluggish murmur. The kid's eyes sank like sunsets. Jack let out a long weightless breath. He looked up at Sally who sat watched the two men with the same look as if they were puppies playing. Jack shook his head and leaned back yawning.

"Ready for bed?" Sally asked. Before Jack could answer, she grabbed the back of his chair and wheeled him out of the room." Good, glad you saw sense." Jack opened his mouth to give her an earful when she spun into a double- bedded room. Jack smiled.

"Mac's coming down here too?" Sally rolled her eyes.

"Trying to keep you both in bed when the other one is out of sight is more of a pain than it's worth." Jack grinned as she helped him stand and pivot to the side of the far bed, "I swear you'd think you two were siamese twins." Despite the irritation in her voice, she used a gentle touch helping Jack get comfortable. Jack yawned and caught Sally's wrist as she moved away.

"No bullshit, Sally. How is he?" Sally sighed and pulled a strand of red hair back from her face.

"He has a long road ahead. Izzy gave up counting the number of bones he'd broken and that was just his feet. Anyone else I would have written him off a long time ago." The fondness Sally held for the blonde no matter what insult or stubbornness the younger man threw her way, and it was a lot, never faltered. Jack thought that made her a living saint.

"Izzy?" Jack asked. His eyes were melting shut.

"Doctor Isabel Tohi. She's our new doctor who happens to have a specialty in seventeen areas of surgery as well as native herbal remedies." Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Damn, Doc Carl better watch out."

"Are you kidding? Izzy is his grandmother." Sally turned and walked out. Jack watched her go and shook his head. Grandmother? Holy shit. Jack thought of working beside Nana Beth and shuddered. He loved his Nana, but working with her? Jack felt himself blush at the idea. He pictured Nana and Matty ganging up on him. Jack closed his eyes and fell asleep to escape that nightmare.

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Jack got released a week later. Mac grumbled and became downright mean to Sally, especially when he creaked out of bed for physical therapy. One day Jack woke up to a loud clash of wills. He'd seen a lot of natural disasters, but had to admit this was scarier than all of them.

"I told you to get out of my way!" Mac growled leaning on a walker, "You want me to walk, I'm fucking walking, so move!" Sally stood in front of the blonde her hands on the walker preventing Mac from moving. Jack sat up not liking the tension in the room. Fists were close to flying.

"Mac, you need to calm down and sit down. You have been walking all day. If you keep straining them, the bones in your feet will fracture again."

"I have to get out of here!" Jack frowned at the note of panic in his partner's voice. Sally pursed her lips also picking up the odd tone of his voice. Her voice grew gentler which pissed Mac off more. Sally tried to soothe Mac. Mac continued to yell at her. Jack raised his eyebrows and stood up to intervene. Mac's face was bright red and he was shouting things, Jack knew Mac would be too ashamed of thinking let alone saying out loud in his normal frame of mind. Mac lashed out, his pain a crossbow with poisonous darts designed to mortally wound anyone in his path. Now it was Sally. Jack could see Sally's jaw tense and her lip tremble a little. Mac was scoring every dart hitting its tender mark. Then Mac got downright ugly. He brought Sam into it and Jack's own anger flared.

"Mac, that's enough!" He snapped. Mac turned to him fire in his blue eyes. Jack stood up. Mac shot blistering words at him. In the back of his mind, Jack knew something was going on, that this wasn't really Mac, but the older man hurt for Sally. He yelled back just as hurtful. Sally tried to interrupt the growing explosion, but the two men ignored her stepping toe to toe bellowing full volume.

Suddenly, an ear splitting horn bounced off the rooms walls.. Both men stepped back facing this new threat. A short roundish woman with long braids folded at the side of her head filled the doorway of the room. She held a police foghorn that had wires taped around it. She smiled and entered the room a calm pond with still waters.

"What is all this ruckus? Is it time for more medication?" Her voice had a lilting accent Jack couldn't place. Instantly both Jack and Mac stood straighter.

"No, Ma'am." They said at the same time. The woman nodded and studied one then the other. Sally moved out of the way to let her through.

"Jack, sit down." The woman's voice was calm but implacable. Her black eyes were onyx knife points resting on sharp angular cheeks. Her face was stern, but also held a glint of amusement. Jack found himself obeying without thinking about. She gave him a pleased smile. Jack felt like he'd just scored the winning touchdown. It was embarrassing. Izzy turned and gave Mac a sterner look.

"Angus, sit down and tell me what's really going on?" Mac glared at her still shaking from residual rage. Izzy nodded and moved beside Mac sitting on his bed. She ignored Mac and turned to Sally.

"Are you ok, Miss Weathers?" Sally wiped her face and smiled.

"Of course, Izzy." Izzy nodded.

"Very good, why don't you and Jack go on a break. Get a soda." Jack was going to open his mouth to explain Mac would talk to him before he'd talk to a stranger. Izzy's dark eyes silenced him and compelled him out of the room as if she'd set a fire on his backside. Sally closed the door behind them. Izzy sighed and crossed her legs.

Mac was shaking with the effort of standing, but refused to give in

"I'm not sure I like LA." The doctor began. Her voice was earthy and vast. It was the kind of voice that hypnotized you when she told a story. Mac ground his teeth sweat running down his tense muscles.

"I came from a place of plains and big sky. I love to fly on horseback knowing that no matter how far or fast we run we will never fall off the world. Here everything is closed in, hot, swampy."

"Why are you here?" Mac ground out. The doctor paused thoughtful for a long minute.

"I think I am supposed to be." Mac turned and glared at her.

"That's ridiculous." Izzy laughed a jolly belly grunt.

"Isn't life? Old people have wisdom but wear older bodies that will soon go out like a candle."

"Is that you? Older and wiser?" Mac's voice was too tired to carry the sharpness he wanted to stab with. Mac wobbled to the side. Izzy looked at him amused.

"Maybe. I do know I am healthier and more stubborn than you," She grinned, "I also know that if you don't sit down in the next minute or two you are going to crack your cranium by falling on your head." Mac slowly sank into the bed. He was unable to hide his sigh of relief.

"I was getting tired anyway." Mac hated the adolescent whine in his voice. He looked down. He hadn't noticed but his hands had balled into fists. With slow deliberation, he relaxed each muscle until his hands were open. Dr. Tohi moved closer to his side, just shy of touching him. Her voice took on a tone only people who raised children could muster.

"You are very angry, Angus. What's really wrong?" Mac bit his lip and turned away. She sounded like his mother. No, he corrected. She sounded like he thought his mother should sound. He didn't have enough clear memories to say for sure. He felt his heart clench and stared at his hands. Izzy had such a quiet presence Mac could easily have forgotten she was beside him. He glanced down at the fog horn.

"Did you cross wire that with a radio speaker?" He asked impressed. She laughed and handed it to him. Mac studied it and grinned.

"Where I grew up, we had to make do with what we had." She said. Mac looked at her his mouth hanging open, "I heard you like to do that too. Someday I'll take you to my workshop."

"Workshop?" He felt like a drooling dog sitting in front of a cooked T-bone

"Oh yes, a two story garage. Woodworking, welding-I skulpt metal art. I love the feeling of making something out of nothing. When I can't focus I have an old knucklehead bobber I've been putting together and taking apart for years. I never ride it, but just like to work the familiar gears and valves. You know what I mean?" Mac could only nod. She took a deep breath. Mac was finally calmed down. Izzy studied him.

"Who is it you need to see?" Mac straightened surprised. Before he could deny it she raised a quieting hand, "I have seen many soul sicknesses, Angus. I know when guilt is chasing at your hooves. You can't escape it. Who do you need to see?" Mac rubbed his forehead.

"Well I should probably start with Jack." Mac muttered.

"And Sally?" Mac scowled at the older woman. She raised an eyebrow. Mac nodded, "Fine, and Sally...but then there is someone I need to see…"

Jack took his apology gracefully punching Mac not-so-lightly on his shoulder. Mac managed to hide the pain. That had been the shoulder he'd dislocated. Of course, Mac acknowledged, there wasn't many places that he could be touched that didn't cover a broken bone.

Sally stared at him stone faced as he stumbled through his apology to her. He felt himself babbling, trying to find some excuse for the way he acted. Finally he slumped and stared at his feet unable to say anything more. To his surprise, Sally bent and kissed him on the cheek.

"Ok." She turned and left the room. Mac stared at her back and shook his head. He never would understand that woman.

She came the next day-Imani Emeka. Mac sat up blinking sleep out of his eyes.

"Macaroni!" Maggie Blue yelled walking around Imani who stood shifting from foot to foot by the door.

"Maggie Blue." Mac managed before he was swept up in an enthusiastic and painful hug. Everything swirled as he tried to catch his breath after she let him go. By that time, Mac was faced by two girls. The two girls could have been sisters. They stood shy before him wringing their hands. Their bodies squirmed with the barely supressed need to run. Mac grinned and nodded as Maggie Blue introduced them with grave sincerity.

"This is the man who saved you." She said. Mac swallowed and looked away.

"No, it was more of a team effort." He said, his voice hoarse. Before Maggie could answer the girls jostled each other and dashed for the hallway.

"Oh hell! Lisa's gonna scalp them, glad your better!" Maggie yelled over her shoulder as she dashed after the two girls. The silence was awkward as Imani came in and perched on the chair beside Mac's bed. Mac stared at his hands in his lap.

"Thank you for keeping your promise." Imani began. Mac nodded trying to think of a way of putting his thoughts into words. It was Imani who took on the pachyderm between them, "If you callled me down here to tell me what a swell guy Percy was and how I should forgive him because he'd dead, you might as well save your breath. I will never forgive him for what he put me and Heaven through." Mac nodded still not looking up.

"I know he wasn't a good person and I know the things he did." Mac said softly.

"And yet you stayed his friend." Imani's voice was cold and angry. Mac looked up at her with a small smile on his face.

"No, we weren't really friends. When I was in college he saved my life and nursed me back to health for a month." Imani scoffed.

"That says more about you than him." Mac laughed.

"Maybe so, but he didn't have to do it. In fact, it probably cost him. I helped him look for Heaven because I owed him." Imani's eyes narrowed. The temperature of the room dropped again.

"This is why you flew me across the country?" Imani made to get up. Mac rolled over and held out a pleading hand wincing at the pain it caused.

"No! No, please listen just for a minute?" Imani sat back down. Mac laid back and took a slow breath.

"When he came to me to ask for my help he was a different guy, Imani."

"Yeah, whatever."

"No, it's true. Whatever bad thing you wanted to do to him, he did to himself a hundredfold. He'd gotten off drugs, he had a law degree and was helping people. He was trying to earn his way back into your and Heaven's lives. He even wore a suit." Mac said with a smile. Imani turned away trying to hide her amusement, "Look, he was no angel, but he knew that. He knew he hurt you and I think would have done anything to have Heaven back in his life again." Imani stared at Mac.

"Why do you care? You said he ain' your friend but now you're pleading for what? He's dead, there's nothing to be done about it now." Mac looked away and rubbed his forehead.

"I know. Imani, I can't imagine what pain he put you and Heaven through. I don't know if you would ever have been able to forgive him, or will forgive him now. He died saving my life, he gave up everything to get Heaven back. She was the only thing that mattered to him."

"What do you want me to do with that?"

"Imani...when you tell Heaven about her dad remember to tell her that with the bad. Don't let her see only the thug and pain he caused, please let him have some sort of redemption if not in your eyes, at least in hers." Mac met her gaze for a long minute. He thought of Annabelle Pena, "Stories are important. When you don't have someone there to hug or know...stories are all you have." I wish I had stories, Mac silently added. Imani nodded as she gathered her things.

"Very well. I'll do it for you, Mr. MacGyver because you got my heaven back. But don't think for a minute I'll ever stop hating him." Mac leaned back.

"Fair enough." Imani paused at the door. This time she smiled a genuine smile.

"And don't worry about Maggie and Ambrile either. They're coming home with me. I think Heaven and Ambrile have decided they're sisters."

"Thank you, Imani." Mac said softly. Imani nodded and left. Mac stared at the door long after she was gone. His eyes slowly sank down. He hoped that one day Imani could forgive Percy, but understood why she couldn't. He thought of his father and wondered about their potential reunion and all of the emotional chaos that will cause. Sometimes, families sucked.

"Look what I found, buddy!" Jack said as he breezed into the room. Mac looked up smiling as Jack, Bozer, Riley, Cage and Matty filed in. Jack held a sheet cake. Bozer dragged in a bouquet of balloons. Riley and Cage held two enormous bears. Riley's was a panda; Cage hugged a koala, of course. Matty held up a roll of papers. Mac grinned recognizing his discharge papers. He knew they were all here to lift his spirits then take him home and help him get settled. Sometimes, he thought with contentment, family was awesome and all that mattered in the world.

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And that, ladies and gentlemen is the end of Redemption. Thank you for reading and special love sent to those who took the time and effort to comment. SO appreciated. I'm sorry it took so long to finish and I hope you are not disappointed after the wait. I'm afraid I'll be working slower for awhile. Thank you everyone who sent well-wishes, prayers and kind thoughts. They are tiny treasures I am collecting for the painful days coming. You guys are the best. Until next time, Peace!


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